AAC was invented by the same German company who came up with MP3. AAC was supposed to be a better standard in terms of quality vs. file size and was intended to replace MP3 but MP3 still lives to this day. I imagine that Spotify is using Ogg Vorbis since they don't have to pay a royalty.
That being said, I would have paid a premium for CD quality or better. Maybe one of these days we'll get it. Right now, Tidal is the only game in town for audiophiles.
I bet in a blind test, you would FAIL to being able to tell which one was better!!! So many so called audiophiles fail the blind tests that are done, it's pretty laughable.
I bet in a blind test, you would FAIL to being able to tell which one was better!!! So many so called audiophiles fail the blind tests that are done, it's pretty laughable.
I took the Tidal test. No, I didn't get everything right. Most people don't.
Folks that know their HiFi would never use a phone to listen to music on (for the high quality experience). Earphones don't have the range a set of quality speakers have.
I don't hesitate to use a phone as a source, and I know a bit about HiFi. My Sony headphones are rated at 5hz - 30,000 hz. That's a greater range than my 'quality' speakers. The speakers sound better though.
I don't hesitate to use a phone as a source, and I know a bit about HiFi. My Sony headphones are rated at 5hz - 30,000 hz. That's a greater range than my 'quality' speakers. The speakers sound better though.
A phone with a portable DAC and a nice set of headphones makes a great high fidelity experience on the go. Portable DACs are one of the fastest growing segments of high end audio.
Has there been any research done to see if the average user can tell the difference between 128, 256, 320? I'm talking about your average music listener, not audiophiles.
I listened to it and got only a handful right. I don't have expensive headphones, nor do I want them-- the ones I have are just fine.
I tried it other people in the office, and they couldn't tell a difference, either. I didn't try the audio engineers, they would probably notice, as that's their job and they have better headphones than we do, but still.
256? NBD.
EDIT: Should've finished reading the whole thread-- someone else posted it. Sorry! But at any rate, I think 256 is fine for most people.
I did a decent amount of research on whether Apple's 256 AACs sound better or worse than 320 mp3s. I'm pretty sure they're better (while also delivering smaller file size, unless I'm crazy, than 256 mp3s).
I have never found a song or excerpt where I could hear the difference.
Even I can tell the difference between 128kbps and the higher bitrates, and my ears have lost some fidelity thanks to a lifetime of going to rock shows. But as far as I can tell, 256kbps AAC beats 320kbps MP3 every time, and it is devilishly difficult (but possible) to tell lossless from 256kbps AAC.
Comments
AAC was invented by the same German company who came up with MP3. AAC was supposed to be a better standard in terms of quality vs. file size and was intended to replace MP3 but MP3 still lives to this day. I imagine that Spotify is using Ogg Vorbis since they don't have to pay a royalty.
That being said, I would have paid a premium for CD quality or better. Maybe one of these days we'll get it. Right now, Tidal is the only game in town for audiophiles.
I bet in a blind test, you would FAIL to being able to tell which one was better!!! So many so called audiophiles fail the blind tests that are done, it's pretty laughable.
I bet in a blind test, you would FAIL to being able to tell which one was better!!! So many so called audiophiles fail the blind tests that are done, it's pretty laughable.
I took the Tidal test. No, I didn't get everything right. Most people don't.
Folks that know their HiFi would never use a phone to listen to music on (for the high quality experience). Earphones don't have the range a set of quality speakers have.
I don't hesitate to use a phone as a source, and I know a bit about HiFi. My Sony headphones are rated at 5hz - 30,000 hz. That's a greater range than my 'quality' speakers. The speakers sound better though.
I don't hesitate to use a phone as a source, and I know a bit about HiFi. My Sony headphones are rated at 5hz - 30,000 hz. That's a greater range than my 'quality' speakers. The speakers sound better though.
A phone with a portable DAC and a nice set of headphones makes a great high fidelity experience on the go. Portable DACs are one of the fastest growing segments of high end audio.
Has there been any research done to see if the average user can tell the difference between 128, 256, 320? I'm talking about your average music listener, not audiophiles.
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality/
I listened to it and got only a handful right. I don't have expensive headphones, nor do I want them-- the ones I have are just fine.
I tried it other people in the office, and they couldn't tell a difference, either. I didn't try the audio engineers, they would probably notice, as that's their job and they have better headphones than we do, but still.
256? NBD.
EDIT: Should've finished reading the whole thread-- someone else posted it. Sorry! But at any rate, I think 256 is fine for most people.
I have never found a song or excerpt where I could hear the difference.