When does MP3 become the bottleneck?

[Bosk]

You use EAC to rip a song to your hard drive.

You then encode two versions:

- WAV / FLAC / APE / Apple Lossless version.

- MP3 version using LAME's alt-preset insane.


What kind of *portable* audio setup do you need before the MP3 file becomes the bottleneck of the system, compared with the lossless version?


Are we talking something top of the line like: Portable MP3 Player → Zu Audio Mini-Mini Cable → Emmerline SR-71 → Ultimate Ear Headphones
Or maybe even a low end setup like: Portable MP3 Player → Koss KC-35


I realise you might be able to hear differences between the lossless & MP3 files with just an MP3 Player + stock earbuds.
But I'm talking about hearing *substatial differences* which change the overall nature of the performance - to the point where it becomes silly not to use the lossless version.


So what sort of portable gear is needed to arrive at that point?

 

[Kirosia]

When YOU can start telling the difference, then it's becoming a bottleneck. Some can't even w/ good setups, others can. YMMV

 

[aeriyn]

I encode all my music for portable use with my iPod in 224kbps AAC. I find it very difficult to tell from the original CD source; most certainly not in portable situations where I'm not paying intense attention to the music.

Very rarely do I listen in an analytical fashion; even on my home system (and my home listening is all Redbook audio, why use lossy compression when I've got all my CDs right there?) I usually listen to music as a sort of "mid"ground (not background, I do pay attention to it, but not like some of the folks here) while doing something else... usually posting on here or working on my novel.

There are times when I actually listen closer to my portable than to my home, especially while waiting for something, and 224kbps AAC is transparent to my ears. While I do have some 192kbps MP3s and listen to those as well, the artifacing is more apparent, but it doesn't ruin the fun factor. 128kbps, however, does ruin it for me, especially if I've heard the original PCM audio to begin with.

The golden rule with all things audio is generally Your Mileage May Vary and of course, we can't forget the all important you: if you enjoy it, then it's good. =P

 

[blessingx]

bottleneck?

 

[lindrone]

Really depends on each individual... iamdone was able to hear a noticeable difference with ER-4 before, and I was able to hear it with the E5c. Personally, the difference I heard with just an iPod+E5c setup (with no amp) was enough to convince me to go to nothing but lossless.