Gigaworks S750: Min bitrate for mp3 audio?

[ShyGuy91284]

I'm going to be receiving the Creative Gigaworks S750 speakers soon (W/ audigy card for now, will get an Audigy 2 ZS eventually). What do people here recommend is the minimum bitrate that won't cause a noticable degredation in sound quality for these speakers? I've heard for speakers like these, 128 bitrate doesn't cut it.

 

[globalcitizen]

It will be your own preference. Somepeople are fine with 128 others cannot stand anything below 192. Test it out and see.

 

[gryfon]

i'd recommend using vbr, good balance between space and quality. As for the bitrate, i usually use standard preset with lame mp3 encoder. The average VBR results are between ~170- ~220 kbps.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I started going with lossless WMA (I believe thats the right format acronym). That or else maybe high quality VBR MP3s.

I haven't been listening to music thats stored on my computer, I've got a bunch of new CDs and I had been listening to a couple of DVD Audio discs. I wish the music industry would switch to DVD-A and get away from CDs. At least couldn't they start doing where they release a Special Edition version that has it on DVD-Audio?

And yeah, you'll just have to test out different configs and see what bitrates you can deal with.

 

[ShyGuy91284]

I figured it would come down to Trial and error more or less. A VBR mp3 will probably be what I'll go with. Which one I've still gotta determine and figure out. I'd like to go with OGG, because in my own personal tests with my current speakers, it proved to have the best VBR quality for the size, but I'm limited to an mp3-only player that I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon.

 

[Gurck]

Definitely try ogg, imo it sounds, at 192bit, as good as or better than 320bit mp3. I wouldn't recommend anything below 192, even if you don't feel you can tell on the speakers, if you ever get high quality headphones you'll kick yourself as you reencode all your CDs. Hard drives are too cheap these days to worry about the minor space difference.

 

[MrPabulum]

It should be at least 160kbps, but 192kbps - 256kbps is preferred. Also depends on what type of music you listen to, as degradation may not be as noticeable in a Linkin Park song as it might be in a song with wider instrument seperation. At least, this was my experience with Klipsch speakers. 😎

 

[yhelothar]

Try doing blind tests with foobar ABX comparison. Chances are that you probably won't hear the difference in 128kbps mp3s if it was well encoded. Unless it was a high quality recording and your ears has been trained to hear the difference.

 

[konakona]

i second the ogg idea. if you got hdd space to spare or dont mind backing up music on dvdrs, definitely go with flac or ape.

btw, dont get audigy if your primary use is music. emu-0404 is similarly priced and is simply at another level of sound from their low-class siblings (they use same emu DSP yet sound so different)

 

[1336]

Also give the AudioTrak 7.1 a shot.