Lossy Audio Formats (mp3, ogg, m4a, etc), Quality and Comparisons

[Freight]

no, natural harmonics are always integer multiples of the frequencies which you already hear. so you might be missing out on some higher harmonics but they only go up from the base frequency.

the "noise" occurs when those harmonics are aliased -- meaning that the sampling frequency of the A/D converter (usually around 14.4 kHz, correct?) isn't sufficient to capture frequencies higher than ~7 kHz and aliases them to some lower frequency which manifests within the audible range. this might be what your friend was referring to.

[suave_house1983]

great read, thanks for bumping this, i never would have found it

i always try to get music in the highest bitrate possible - preferably 320 or V0. i can't really tell a difference with anything over 256, but i figure with drive space as cheap as it is, i might as well. besides, some day i might have the cash to buy a real sound system, so i like to think of it as 'future-proofing' my collection while internet is still fast and music is still dreadfully easy to come by

[Antoinnette]

Yes, that is abnormal. The napster mp3 store which is one of the largest has most of it's catalogue in 256.

And Apples iStore which is an even bigger actor on the market ..



That was before, now they've stepped up to an equivalent of 256 kbps.

Source : Apple - Support

And having checked on banRAB who sell or give away their music, I think the latest Marillion album was available as 256 mp3s at the highest. Radiohead's In Rainbow was at 160 kbps while Maudlin of the Well's latest album was high quality VBRs.

So yeah, I'd say that as the industry is moving away from physical formats like CRAB, they are abandoning excess quality. At least they have the last some years.

[m e l y b]

I know that I can definitely hear the difference between different bit rates of the same piece of music. I think a lot of the time the difference is less perceptible if a greater degree of dynamic compression went into the original recordings, hip hop being a good example. As it stanRAB right now I try to get everything at at least 256kbps.

[AnnabellActress]

I took myself up on my word and made a bitrate test! Those who think they are good at identifying differing bitrates in lossy formats can give it a shot

Check it out -> http://www.rabroad.com/games-lists-j...-bitrates.html

[Nina Lee]

Nobody "neeRAB" it at 320 but if that's what's available then I'll take it. I'm not enough of an audiophile to really care, but FLAC format is just wasted space, I mean does an entire album need to be over 200 rab? for 11 songs?

[sillybilly]

lol, using calculus to explain digital recordings. but yes, it's a good analogy.

assuming i understood everything which was presented here, this is a brilliant fucking guide, especially for our audiophile nazis out there. personally, i can't even tell the difference as long as it's at least 128 kbps, no need for me to pursue lossless formats.

[Beejakins]

Again, people who claim they can hear a difference - that's not really the question. So you can hear a difference between 192 and 256 - given 10 songs ripped in 192 and 256, could you tell which was which for the different songs with significance beyond the 50% chance you'll be correct for each attempt?

I mean that's what you have to ask yourself - not whether or not you can hear a difference. You could even play the same file to someone twice, tell them the BR is different when it's not and they'll come up with differences when there are none. Such is the human error.

When testing yourself, you have to know :

1. What are you after? You wanna be able to identify the higher quality file.
2. Your own weaknesses/error/bias as a human being. That's what blind tests are for, removing that error.

Sitting down listening to two files knowing the BR of both is likely not a reliable way to test this.

edit :

It's like my GF claimed she preferred Pepsi Max to Coke Zero .. I made her do a blind test. Know which one she preferred? Coka Cola Zero : Sometimes, people trust themselves too much.

[Cheshire Kitteh]

I can tell the difference between 128 and 320, but I can't tell the difference between 256 and 320.

Anyways top notch guide!

[Fσx☮Account suspended]

I think it's easy for people to jump to conclusions. Reading studies on this, I have read instances where people believe they can hear a difference between bitrates and when they do a blind test, it turns out they can't. I myself turned out to be worse at this than I thought.

In order to be certain you can or cannot, you have to subject yourself to a blind test. Hearing a difference is not really the question either - the real question is can you hear which one is the higher quality one? I know that I'm not as good at this as I previously suspected and I think many would be surprised.

edit :

Actually, I can set up a blind test in the games forum, I'll encode a couple of mp3s in varying qualities and then people can download them and check if they can guess which ones are the correct ones.

.. Although they'd have to promise not to look it up on the file, though - or filesize. Hm.

I'd have to find a way to make people stream it I guess.