Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
I don't know what these guys are smoking but above about 250kbps even mp3s are pretty much transparent let alone AAC, Vorbis, or WMA. Hypothetically, even if you had incredible hearing, there are few circumstances where you can get a room quiet enough with good enough speakers to tell the difference.
The best part of all this is people who want lossless audio for portables and cars. I mean wth, seriously, you think you can tell the difference in your car?! If someone has some spare server space, I'd love to set up a double-blind test to verify the claims of people who "need" lossless audio.
I agree going lossless on portables makes zero sense, not only because they are not likely to have a good enough setup to appreciate the difference, but also because of storage & power consumption constraints.
Just as I stay agnostic about religeon, I dont believe in something so strongly unless I have enough factual information at hand, and it goes both ways. The way I see it, there are zealots on both camps; if someone DOES here some difference and sees its worth it, why scoff at them and try to "enlighten" them? elitist attitude definitely deserves some swift boot in their face, but i dont rule out the possibility of the differing abilities in us to appreciate the music. claiming there should be no difference and everyone should agree on that is another form of eliticism - except its on the opposite end of the spectrum - in my book.
Not everyone agrees AB blind test is the ONE AND ONLY ABSOLUTE way to determine the use for theoratically superior formats. certain things arent as apparantly noticeable like going from 11khz to 22khz, rather intagible but definitely there and you keep noticing gradually over time - as cited with many audiophiles with some nice gear. When I listen to music, i just try to groove and staying analytical to pinpoint the differences is the last thing i would do for listening pleasure. naturally, my setup tends to "musical", "lush" or "unanalytical" sound, or whatever you call it.
I used to rip my own CDs using lame with standard/extreme settings, and nowadays I just use EAC/FLAC automated process in one step. it sure does take more space, but with storage being under 20cents per a megabyte, extra stroage requirement doesnt terribly bother me. Some tracks sound much or less the exact same, others sound different - being a tad more "airy" with FLAC/CD. certain decay effects sound better also, but it isnt SOOOO pronounced I need to delete all of my mp3 collection. so the difference is there sometimes, and isnt very noticeable for most part, but I still go with FLAC since it isnt that big of a setback stroage-wise for home use.
associated gear : HD-650 with headphile silver -> headphile silver IC -> Singlepower PPX3-6CG7 -> EMU-1212M with heavy modding
on a side note, I couldnt tell any difference at all even if i tried on my humble midiland s2-4100s. while not the best speakers in the world, they are considered to be quite ok for computers.
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