Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Preferably lossless with a DR rating of 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bollemanneke 3,337 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 I've been updating my standard VBR files to extreme VBR. I considered lossless, but could never get everything I wanted in lossless without going on a spending spree, which was not an option. Am I wasting time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx99 1,740 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 35 minutes ago, bollemanneke said: I've been updating my standard VBR files to extreme VBR. I considered lossless, but could never get everything I wanted in lossless without going on a spending spree, which was not an option. Am I wasting time? If you’re directly converting your VBR MP3s to new, higher bitrate VBR MP3s, then you’re gaining absolutely nothing and likely adding additional compression artifacts to your new files. Not recommended!! If you’re creating new, higher bitrate VBR MP3s from uncompressed or lossless source files to replace the old VBR MP3s, then you may get improved quality, depending on the characteristics of the source content. bollemanneke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 I just listen to whatever is streaming or available via illegal downloads if I'm inclined. I feel no guilt downloading a copy of Masters of the Universe that I legally purchased years ago, especially since it's one of the best scores ever made. Chances are, if I've downloaded it, I legally owned a physical copy before I ditched the collection. I only listen to music digitally. I think most are ripped at 320 mp3. Sounds fine. Unlucky Bastard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,475 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Honestly I never really noticed the difference between FLACS and 320 kbps mp3s. All I know is that compression is hard on live recordings, trumpets and loud string parts. I've noticed it with 192 kbps mp3s. I love Spotify! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 I only ever listen to music on my hi-fi and in the car, so I use the highest quality source with the best dynamics I can, and just rip those to my car USB. I don't listen to film scores in the car though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,475 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Good habit. Here's what happened to the last JWfan who listened to CE3K in his car: Naïve Old Fart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Risk I can't take. Bespin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1977 1,743 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 I would likely never purchase lossless downloads until they adjust the pricing down to lossy price levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kühni 485 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 24 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said: I would likely never purchase lossless downloads until they adjust the pricing down to lossy price levels. Yup. At 7Digital Germany, the 24-bit FLAC of Solo Deluxe comes to 36.49 Euro, or $45. Nah, pass. Or getting it another way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 That's too dear for computer files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,498 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 14 minutes ago, Kühni said: Yup. At 7Digital Germany, the 24-bit FLAC of Solo Deluxe comes to 36.49 Euro, or $45. Nah, pass. Or getting it another way. On HDTracks, it's only 21 bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kühni 485 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 38 minutes ago, Holko said: On HDTracks, it's only 21 bucks. On 7Digital Canada, the 24-bit FLAC is $20. Or 12,50 Euro. Somebody riddle me this discrepancy, please... (Unfortunately, even with a VPN, I cannot put in an order with the Canada site, as you'd need a Canadian credit card in order to do so. Curses, foiled again!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,498 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 2 minutes ago, Kühni said: Somebody riddle me this discrepancy, please... Some stores are assholes, some aren't. Kühni 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bollemanneke 3,337 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 10 hours ago, thx99 said: If you’re directly converting your VBR MP3s to new, higher bitrate VBR MP3s, then you’re gaining absolutely nothing and likely adding additional compression artifacts to your new files. Not recommended!! If you’re creating new, higher bitrate VBR MP3s from uncompressed or lossless source files to replace the old VBR MP3s, then you may get improved quality, depending on the characteristics of the source content. I re-downloaded everything, a lot of it in 320. thx99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1977 1,743 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 3 hours ago, Holko said: On HDTracks, it's only 21 bucks. That's still too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,498 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 For 2 hours of new music? 2 disc specialty releases go for 30! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1977 1,743 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 4 hours ago, Holko said: For 2 hours of new music? 2 disc specialty releases go for 30! The most I have and would ever pay for a download is the equivalent of $10-12. Most downloads go for around $5-7 average in my iTunes store. I'm happy with the lossy quality, it sounds fine to my ears. I won't pay more for lossless and/or high-res. Solo DE sells for $12 equivalent on my iTunes, as do the new Varese Club downloads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rough cut 1,714 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 12 hours ago, bollemanneke said: I've been updating my standard VBR files to extreme VBR. I considered lossless, but could never get everything I wanted in lossless without going on a spending spree, which was not an option. Am I wasting time? I’d say yes. Get what you can in lossless, leave the rest in whatever lossy quality you already have. bollemanneke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bollemanneke 3,337 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Just wanted to say this: Listened multiple times to a bit from CE3K by the VPO, both in FLAC and VBR0 MP3. If I really strain, I can hear the contrabassoon SLIGHTLY more clearly in the FLAC file, but it just is not worth the extra space. I tried with two different pairs of headphones, same result. Boy, am I glad I'm converting my collection to VBR0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,475 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 They are several FLAC quality! 16 bits, 24 bits... Actually the 32 bits is not supported... but it's only a matter of time! For my part, as I rip CDs, FLAC 16 bits is the only option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAvengerButton 175 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 I don't think I necessarily need anything other than 16 bit FLAC, but if someone wanted to change my mind I'm all for it. 16 bit already sounds fantastic clarity-wise to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,281 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 If you're ripping a CD, the data is already on those discs in 16 bits/44.1khz. If you rip it at any other setting you're doing it wrong. Manakin Skywalker and thx99 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 9,493 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 3 hours ago, Bespin said: They are several FLAC qualities! My FLAC is always quality Bespin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,326 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Spotify goes lossless. Am I breaking the news here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,281 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Yea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,475 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 I always listened my Spotify with the "extreme" quality settings, assuming it meaned 320 mp3s! But that's okay for me, as I'm using Spotify to buy more CDs... I will not pay for their new Hifi service. No thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew 590 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I used to use Apple Lossless but now I use AIFF. I noticed more detail and clarity on AIFF files compared to ALAC. No, I'm not bluffing. I think some devices struggle to decode Apple Lossless. FLAC is not an option because I'm in the Apple ecosystem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I used to use WAV, then I settled for streaming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I just streamed a good long piss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I waved goodbye to WAV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew 590 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 WAV is unusable because of the lack of support for metadata. Microsoft and Apple really need to update the WAV file standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,172 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 6 hours ago, Drew said: WAV is unusable because of the lack of support for metadata. Microsoft and Apple really need to update the WAV file standard. It's not the standard, it's the tooling support (depending on the tools I suppose): Quote As a derivative of RIFF, WAV files can be tagged with metadata in the INFO chunk. In addition, WAV files can embed any kind of metadata, including but not limited to Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data[25] or ID3 tags[26] in extra chunks. Applications may not handle this extra information or may expect to see it in a particular place. Although the RIFF specification requires that applications ignore chunks they do not recognize, some applications are confused by additional chunks.[citation needed] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV#Metadata Although I don't see the point in using WAV with metadata in 99.9% of all situations I could think of, when there are more flexible and space efficient formats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,475 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 WAVE PCM is the format for working (editing, restoration, etc.) FLAC is the format to store and play. Edited: Thanks @thx99! thx99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,281 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post thx99 1,740 Posted March 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted March 7, 2021 2 hours ago, Bespin said: PCM (pulse code modulation) is the format for working (editing, restoration, etc.) FLAC is the format to store and play. Not to be a stickler, but I had to correct your post, @Bespin. WAV is a container format. It is not an audio encoding scheme. WAV files can contain compressed audio data; hell, they can even contain MP3 audio data. So saying that you have a WAV file of something doesn't immediately equate to you having a file with uncompressed audio inside of it. PCM is an uncompressed audio encoding method, and PCM data can be stored in WAV files, AIFF files, AVI files, MOV files, etc. Amer, Marian Schedenig, Jay and 1 other 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,475 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 thx99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,172 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 1 hour ago, thx99 said: WAV is a container format. It is not an audio encoding scheme. WAV files can contain compressed audio data; hell, they can even contain MP3 audio data. So saying that you have a WAV file of something doesn't immediately equate to you having a file with uncompressed audio inside of it. Reading up on Wikipedia, I was surprised to learn that WAV is in fact based RIFF, which in fact was invented for the standard image and audio formats on the Amiga. At the time, they were pretty advanced (I think) in abstracting the container from the data and codec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rough cut 1,714 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I’ll take a standard CD-quality rip in FLAC, WAV or Apple Lossless over an mp3 any day. 16 bit/44.1 kHz is good enough though, I’ve been doing some tests regarding higher quality, 24 bit, or 96 kHz, or any combination of those with the CD standard, but all I find that the files are just larger without any practical gain. If there’s an option, I always go for 16 bit/44.1 kHz, no more, no less. I am not so picky about which format though (WAV, FLAC, mp4) but if they offer AIFF for the same price, I always go for that. Jurassic Shark and Drew 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,023 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Wise words! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo 2,453 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 For the last eleven years, I have been storing all my CD rips as both FLAC and mp3. I keep them in the same folder for convenience and so if I need to change one album, I can change the other. This is a pain in the butt and a waste of space. Presently I listen to most music by streaming from Plex, so the default playback method is track 1 flac, track 1 mp3, track 2 flac, etc. Pain in the butt. So now I am deleting all mp3 if I already have it in flac. I will only keep mp3 if a) that's how I, um, acquired it, or 2) I need to re-rip the CD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now