What format is your main collection encoded in?

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by ROBSCIX, Apr 9, 2012.

  1. thatguy91

    thatguy91 Guest

    VBR MP3 when encoded correctly sounds quite decent. I don't mean using some ancient version of LAME (it really only started at 3.9x something anyway!!! so 3.97 is ancient), or using a -q value of more than 2, or a -V value more than 4 (lower is better for both of those). Note that -v is a completely different option to -V! Also using the new VBR algorithm (I believe this is the default now).

    I personally use -q0 and -V3. Encoding in CBR can be either quite wasteful (320KBPS) or not enough (192 in complex scenes). VBR adjusts the bitrate accordingly, and can go up to 320KBPS. Its far superior to how it used to be, so there is no detriment to audio quality.

    Latest builds of FLAC and LAME can be found here:
    http://www.mediafire.com/lame

    No idea who builds them, but they work great :) currently using LAME 3.100A0 from 18 March 2012, but the less adventurous use the 3.99.5 instead. The date on the archive is very important, such that FLAC 1.2.2 is quite different to FLAC 1.2.2_20111201 (01 Dec 2012).

    I would have been using AAC (using a good encoder like the Nero AAC) if the .m4a container format (which is absolutely NOT an Apple format like some may think) were more widely accepted in devices. I'd use a -q value of 0.45. A lot of audio encoded in AAC either uses a crappy encoder (like the iTunes store), or too low of a setting, or force AAC HE because 'high efficiency' sounds better than 'low complexity', but HE is only meant for speech, and its a common mistake.

    Apparently there is a new audio format being developed which is something like twice as efficent as AAC again. It would be getting very close to not being able to go any further!
     
  2. k1net1cs

    k1net1cs Ancient Guru

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    Official LAME repository is here:
    http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php

    No, HE isn't only meant for speech, it's just more efficient than LC at low bitrate encoding (80kbps and lower).
    For the same bitrate, HE sounds better than LC at those low bitrates.

    I take it you're talking about Opus?
     
  3. N0sferatU

    N0sferatU Ancient Guru

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    FLAC MP3 and WAV

    I usually duplicate my FLAC collection into MP3 for the car (won't read FLAC).

    Just checked...25,254 files and 268GB space.
     
  4. pokerapar88

    pokerapar88 Guest

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    FLAC level 4 rips from my cds, then mp3 320kbs mostly. there's a couple of songs at 192 or variable bitrate.
     

  5. F1refly

    F1refly Ancient Guru

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    128kbs mp3 works just fine for me.
     
  6. Nato.dbnz

    Nato.dbnz Ancient Guru

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    Do you do most of your listening through a telephone?
     
  7. pokerapar88

    pokerapar88 Guest

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    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    128kb/s MP3's are like listening to 8-bit music from MAME games :)

    I once heard a 96kb/s MP3 song while stroking my cat. He jumped off the window and suicided.
     
  8. TirolokoRD

    TirolokoRD Guest

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    Lol!!!......good one that!
     
  9. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    I'm going to be the odd man out here, almost all of my collection is ripped using WMA Lossless. I just let WMP or the Zune app rip and tag the songs. I have a thumb drive with lossy versions I use in my car.
     
  10. TirolokoRD

    TirolokoRD Guest

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    Does somebody here knows an app that can update the name, the album and the art of a music file by the filename?
     

  11. p0ppa

    p0ppa Guest

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    i mainly use 320 kbps CBR. if not, FLAC or APE.

    Mediamonkey is a pretty neat program for ripping off my old CDs and organising tags and such
     
  12. TruMutton_200Hz

    TruMutton_200Hz Guest

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    If I was forced to listen to nothing but mp3 all day long it wouldn't be a cat but it would be me that would suicide.

    I cannot even stand the sound of a "normal" audio CD, not even if it's being played through a $50K stereo system. From my point of.. err.. "view", an audiophile quality vinyl record that's been transferred to a 24/96 lossless format is typically sounding so much better than CD that it makes 128 kb/s mp3 rips and their "untouched" CD versions both sound like poo in a blender. All that's needed to demonstrate how much CDs suck is a half decent $2.5K - $3K-ish turntable setup and a stack of used vinyl.

    Semi-off topic: the improvements in sound quality from moving to a decent outboard DAC such as the one that I have is miles bigger than the difference between modern day onboard sound and any internal soundcard on the market.

    It's like comparing a shabby 25 year old TV to a brand new 1080p Full HD $1K LED TV.
     
  13. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

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    Stick to the topic. Putting other people down for what they are using or getting into the my gear is better then your gear posts are NOT the topic.
     
  14. pokerapar88

    pokerapar88 Guest

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    Interesting to know that an external DAC is better than an internal soundcard (for music)... but in the end it comes to tastes and needs, and ultimately, possibilites. I doubt a non-audiophile would be able to even comprehend the functionality of equipment like that and even less to have the good enough speaker system to take advantage from it. I need good surround and 3D sound effect that's why I'm getting an x-fi internal cards... and that's that.
    I'd like for sure to have a 200k digital/analog system to listen with great orgasmic quality but I know it won't happen in a lifetime ;)
    I'll have to be happy with a couple of sennheisers and a creative sound card and 900+ kbs/s FLACS
     
  15. F1refly

    F1refly Ancient Guru

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    its in your head. If it wasn't then everyone would be like that, but not everyone listens the same or hears the same and audio quality is very much subjective, what bothers some does'nt bother others.

    128 mp3 doesn't bother me at all. i'm not an audiophile and i don't care if that flute behind 10 other instruments and 20 digitized effects is playing at 5000 khz eloping into a soft bamboo toned fadeout or not.
    I also don't care if my toast is ubuntu brown or milky chocolate brown either but i guess some people like me are just not so obsessively picky.
     

  16. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    Presently mp3, bits at 320k, mostly 192. I record my own music at insane 192k/32 bit wav format then what that out at 320k mp3.
     
  17. pokerapar88

    pokerapar88 Guest

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    As you said, its very subjective and that's why your comment is as wrong as his. Anyway, besides from the "subjetivism" there is a fact: someone with better hearing, and this is not only the hearing capability but the finesse and the ability to distinct sounds, instruments and quality of the sound (this is, on one hand, hereditary, and on the other hand can also be trained), will certainly appreciate a better hi-fi equipment than, for example, an ipod full of 192kb/s mp3s and the standard headphones.

    Truth to be told: I have used, untill now, mostly onboard sound on my PCs, BUT, outside the pc environment I enjoy listening to music with an old Technics amplifier with jacked pioneer headphones SE-405 from the 80s, that give me some crispy vintage sound I love:

    [​IMG]

    +

    [​IMG]

    and I love it and it was for free as it was my dads and he gave them to me :)
     
  18. FULMTL

    FULMTL Ancient Guru

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    320kb/s MP3's and 160kb/s Vorbis on Spotify.
    I've listened to only a few of my favorite albums as FLAC to see a difference, and I couldn't tell that big of a difference probably because of my closed headphones. I don't have any decent open headphones to test it out on, but I will later on.
     
  19. N0sferatU

    N0sferatU Ancient Guru

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    with even halfway decent equipment 128kbit sound "washy". I'm not an analytical listener I just enjoy the music. With that said, 192kbit is needed at a minimum.

    Anyways other than my home theater this is what I mostly use for my music pleasure...128kbit = no no with this rig. :bang:

    Figured I'd share since the other guy shared his cool rig. :)

    [​IMG]
     
  20. automaticman

    automaticman Master Guru

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    I find that it usually works the opposite way. The nicer the stereo system being used, the better the recording quality needs to be. The same things that make a high end sound system sound great also bring out all the bad details in a poor recording and make it sound even worse.

    If you're just listening with a pair of computer speakers or base sound system in a Honda the mp3 quality won't make nearly as much of a difference. It all comes down to what the weakest link in the audio is.

    Right now in my car I'm using 192kps WMA in my mostly stock Mustang's stereo. If I were to get around to installing the system I pulled out of my last car before getting rid of it I'm not sure if 192 would really cut it. I'd probably get a portable hard drive to keep the tracks in the lossless format they're stored on my computer in.


    The other thing that matters maybe more than anything else is the difference between listening and critically listening.
     

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