Schu Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Large byte buckets does not mean better sound... because you can not replace or insert dynamic range that does not exist or that has been deleted at the source. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 4 hours ago, Marvel said: Just curious... what is a 'huge' electricity bill? Might be food for another thread. Gawd, Don't get me started, had to renew 2 year contract, new rate 2X old, and also summer. Otherwise one stingy person not using much juice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Heresy 1 or if you find a super deal , a pair of 70's khorns yes you can have a great rack , SS amp , preamp , DAC , Spotify , HiRes Files , TT , but if the speakers you have dont sound like the 70's or the 80's ,,,,,,,just saying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 Trust geezin' has good idea of next speaker. Agree Heritage end all be all, but find hard to suggest Heresy and Klipschorn in same breath. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 I'm not talking about hi-rez files. I agree, that doesn't automatically translate into better sound. But uncompressed 16/44 CD quality files always trump compressed MP3 bit rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 Interesting, my comparison with my music choices showed 320 kps mp3 very comparable to CD. Believe your key modifier may be uncompressed, not sure if that actually exists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 15 minutes ago, Racer X said: Interesting, my comparison with my music choices showed 320 kps mp3 very comparable to CD. Believe your key modifier may be uncompressed, not sure if that actually exists. Sure it does. Tidal and Qobuz stream at 16/44, 24/48, 24/96, and 24/192 quality. All of these files are FLAC, so they unfold to be uncompressed at full bit rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 Well jeepers, those don't sound like CDs. Sampled some hi res an audio buddy gave me on a hard drive, maybe I didn't listen long, hard enough. Most popular pop music is fine at mp3 resolution (although I could not help noticing that record guy gush about Mofi vinyl Abraxas and Thriller, whatever...) Believe Youtube superior delivery vehicle and will ultimately rule the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 If you make an mp3 with a file with reasonable dynamic range, set the record level for -18dbfs. That gives the encoder some room to work with the file and they can be almost indistinguishable from the CD. Quite surprising, really. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 I stream Qobuz and my local files on a NAS. They are virtually indistinguishable from one another. You'd never be able to say that when comparing Spotify to ripped seedees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 13 minutes ago, Marvel said: If you make an mp3 with a file with reasonable dynamic range, set the record level for -18dbfs. That gives the encoder some room to work with the file and they can be almost indistinguishable from the CD. Quite surprising, really. But "lossy data compression resulting in small file size of acceptable fidelity" per the wikipedia. The proof is in the pudding, and your mileage may vary.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 CD data rate is 1411.2 kbps. So 384 kbps is a compression ratio of 3.675:1. FLAC can get you 2:1 without losing any information. So why bother with MP3 at 384 kbps? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geezin' Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 7 hours ago, Shakeydeal said: Before you look at any upgrades on the equipment front, you should improve your source material. Better gear won't matter if you are listening to lossy music. I find that subject confusing to say the least. Then again I still enjoy vinyl. :D I have a copy of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here I bought wayyy back then. Called an import at the record store. Turns out to be a sought after pressing made in the UK. I always thought it sounded great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 3 hours ago, Edgar said: CD data rate is 1411.2 kbps. So 384 kbps is a compression ratio of 3.675:1. FLAC can get you 2:1 without losing any information. So why bother with MP3 at 384 kbps? File size reasonable, easy to manage Easy to find, and free to download at that resolution All the hip new music available instantaneously as MP3 MP3s sound same as CD for the pop music I favor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 26 minutes ago, Racer X said: File size reasonable, easy to manage Easy to find, and free to download at that resolution All the hip new music available instantaneously as MP3 MP3s sound same as CD for the pop music I favor No argument with that, except possibly for the file size, because storage has become so cheap. I was on the MPEG1 Audio committee in the early 1990s, and had a hand in its development. At the time, storage was limited and bandwidth was expensive. We never foresaw an age when teraBytes and gigabits per second would be available for anything less than a king's ransom, let alone at Best Buy. How times change. BTW, I was once involved in a blind listening test with MPEG Audio Layer 1 at 384 kbps and Layer 2 at 256 kbps. A track with which I was very familiar was played, sometimes original CD, sometimes MP1, sometimes MP2. My job was to determine whether the particular version being played was CD or not CD. In eleven trials, I was correct eleven times. MP3 uses better compression than MP1 or MP2, and encoding techniques have improved in the last thirty years, so I probably could not duplicate the feat. Still, it was a gratifying experience for me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 36 minutes ago, Racer X said: File size reasonable, easy to manage Easy to find, and free to download at that resolution All the hip new music available instantaneously as MP3 MP3s sound same as CD for the pop music I favor Someone was knocking youtube awhile back for only being 192kb? There's some very good quality music there IMO. A guy on another forum sent out a CD several years ago with two copies of 5 different songs; one in FLAC and one at 256kb everything level matched only 2 out of maybe 10 people could tell the difference I wasn't one of them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 Yes, exactly. Gather the Youtube is 192 kb, but converter I use up samples to 320 kb. For me, 192 passable, but highest resolution 320 sounds fine, even if upsampled. As for music choice, every single piece of music in my vinyl collection could be found on the Youtube, including the bootlegs. Also, when a Japanese idol I follow drops a new cover song each week, I see it hours after it was posted. Occasionally records could be turned around quite quickly, but nothing like the net. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 5 minutes ago, Racer X said: Gather the Youtube is 192 kb, but converter I use up samples to 320 kb. Exactly how does it do that? Once information is lost, it is lost forever, and increasing the bit rate does not increase the information content. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer X Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 Well, I'm sure you know exactly how it does that, lack of increase in information notwithstanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaudeJ1 Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 On 8/23/2022 at 3:30 PM, jjptkd said: Don't have a lot of experience with class D had a few Topping PA5's running for awhile I didn't consider them fatiguing, kind of sterile maybe. For the price they actually surprised me they did sound pretty good, clean with a decent sized sound stage which I didn't expect, can only imagine how good the higher end class D amps sound. I have Bruno's Masterpieces the 400's I built from kits. Non fatiguing. Never shut them off as they only draw 5 mW each. Shut of the inputs, but not the power amps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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