[vamarci]

So I do not want to get into the debate whether you can hear any difference between lossy and lossless formats.
Rather, I am interested in another, more physical aspect of sound. I am a DJ, and part of the techno rave culture is that the music is usually played really. This can at some venues reach such extents that you can literally feel the music on your body, mostly because of the bass (I presume).
So... regarding the lossy lossless debate, it is clear to me that the ear cannot hear below a certain frequency... But... how about the body? If the sound is loud enough, can good quality speakers (such as Funktion One) handle frequencies that the FLAC would have but not an MP3?

So basically my question is, as a DJ would it make sense to use lossless file formats given that we are not only talking about hearing the music but also about feeling it?

 

[Roseval]

To the best of my knowledge, bass is not affected by lossy compression using a good MP3 encoder like LAME. I suggest however to use a high bit rate e.g. 256 or 320 to maintain transparency.

However, to future proof your collection, I do suggest to use lossless formats like FLAC if possible.

 

[gregorio]

[1] This can at some venues reach such extents that you can literally feel the music on your body, mostly because of the bass (I presume).
[2] If the sound is loud enough, can good quality speakers (such as Funktion One) handle frequencies that the FLAC would have but not an MP3?
[3] So basically my question is, as a DJ would it make sense to use lossless file formats given that we are not only talking about hearing the music but also about feeling it?

1. Correct. Bass roughly between about 40Hz and 120Hz.

2. No. "Good quality speakers (such as Funktion One)" are specified down to around 30Hz, while MP3 can go well below that.

3. It might make sense to use a lossless format but not because of the bass (and feeling the music on your body). If you are performing certain sorts of processing on the files you are playing (pitch-shifting or time/speed expansion or compression being potential examples), then you *might* introduce audible artefacts with an MP3 that you wouldn't with a lossless format.

G