Would this be overkill for listening to Pink Floyd MP3 files encoded @ 64 kbit/s

[UsandThem]

how did you even come to own 64kbps mp3 ??
did you do your own conversion and on purpose used the "shit" setting? jesus christ the carpenter i haven't encoded anything in less than 256 in twenty years.

Not sure if serious...

It sure sounded like they were serious.

And I picked 64 kbit/s as I thought it would be funny to pair with a $60k+ audio set-up.

 

[BUTCH1]

Naptster, probably.

Yea, I've got a few of those old Napster files in my folder, most were encoded at 128 and 128 to me usually had issues. I even canceled my XM radio due to crappy sound from their godawful compression.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I was thinking about that actually I wonder how many of my MP3s are from Napster. Some of these files are older than kids who are old enough to move out of the house.

 

[BUTCH1]

I was thinking about that actually I wonder how many of my MP3s are from Napster. Some of these files are older than kids who are old enough to move out of the house.

Ah yes, but back then the rush of free shit was enough to make it not matter, most of what I got from Napster I've downloaded from Amazon at 256K.

 

[UsandThem]

I was thinking about that actually I wonder how many of my MP3s are from Napster. Some of these files are older than kids who are old enough to move out of the house.

When MP3 encoding first came out (and hard drives were much smaller than they are now), I used to encode at 128 kbit/s.

Since that time, I've replaced almost all of them because the quality is so bad at that bitrate. I think I might still have 5 albums I haven't gotten around to yet, and when they play I can tell right away by how bad they sound.

 

[sdifox]

When MP3 encoding first came out (and hard drives were much smaller than they are now), I used to encode at 128 kbit/s.

Since that time, I've replaced almost all of them because the quality is so bad at that bitrate. I think I might still have 5 albums I haven't gotten around to yet, and when they play I can tell right away by how bad they sound.

flac or go home

 

[UsandThem]

flac or go home

That's a lot easier now.

Back then my hard drive was 8 GB, I believe.

Half of my Pink Floyd collection would have filled that up.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I knew Sennheiser had some pricey options, but I stumbled across this after the emailed me about a sale on some of their headphones. Before seeing this, I thought headphones pretty well topped out around $3k (at least what I've seen on sites like Slickdeals and Head-Fi).

Yeah the headphone market blew up post Beats. I'm surprised that DAPs not only have continued on but seem possibly more popular than ever.

Its a bit of a shame that Apple has been given the ability to dictate technology so much, but perhaps in another decade we might see them pushing custom fit IEMs paired with next level DSP that will nullify most previous audio tech. Ironically I think its what would be considered a visual thing that will drive that - AR/VR.

 

[darkswordsman17]

flac or go home

I think even Apple natively supports FLAC now. Remember when format support was a big thing?

I remember buying some Toshiba DAP and was going to Rockbox it for FLAC playback. I really regret that as I wasn't impressed with either Rockbox (early Android I hated for the same reason, you had to tinker endlessly just to make it not frustrating) or the player itself. I thankfully got out of most of my tinker mentality from back then as it was almost never worth it (I did manage to score some nice sounding headphones for cheap that way although I never finished them so they're still hackneyed as all get out), although I guess I just didn't get into it enough (there's been multiple audio/headphone companies that grew out of tinker programs). I had also bought an iPod Mini (one of the early ones) and was going to do the CF card mod. Its a bit of a shame that we never got an iPhone made in that style (the 6-8 were kinda, but not really).

 

[sdifox]

It sure sounded like they were serious.

And I picked 64 kbit/s as I thought it would be funny to pair with a $60k+ audio set-up.

64kbps is perfectly fine for encoding mono LPs :awe:

 

[sdifox]

I think even Apple natively supports FLAC now. Remember when format support was a big thing?

I remember buying some Toshiba DAP and was going to Rockbox it for FLAC playback. I really regret that as I wasn't impressed with either Rockbox (early Android I hated for the same reason, you had to tinker endlessly just to make it not frustrating) or the player itself. I thankfully got out of most of my tinker mentality from back then as it was almost never worth it (I did manage to score some nice sounding headphones for cheap that way although I never finished them so they're still hackneyed as all get out), although I guess I just didn't get into it enough (there's been multiple audio/headphone companies that grew out of tinker programs). I had also bought an iPod Mini (one of the early ones) and was going to do the CF card mod. Its a bit of a shame that we never got an iPhone made in that style (the 6-8 were kinda, but not really).

I use foobar2000 as my dlna server for music. Don't want Plex to generate thirty xml files for each song...

 

[mopardude87]

I wonder how this compares to my AE-5 sound blaster, music with this thing is so amazing. I consider myself a audiophile and while i would MAYBE replace this the thing was a gift. Maybe if it craps out later perhaps i could look at this as a option.

 

[VirtualLarry]

LOL. 64kbit/sec MP3. My internet radio streaming is better than that. 128kbit/sec MP3 makes my ears bleed. Can't imagine the horrificness of 64kbit/sec. Kind of like sticking a CD in a meat grinder, I expect.

 

[lxskllr]

I grew up listening to worn out vinyl, shitty cassettes, and radio at the fringe of reception. 64kbs isn't that bad. Not my first choice, but it's better than listening to nothing. My first choice is q8 vorbis(~256kbs). Sounds as good as flac at half the space.

edit:
forgot 8tracks. Semi skipable(yay!), but also sometimes cut songs in half, and required dicking around with the tape to get it to play right. 64kbs mp3? That's fuckin' luxury :^D

 

[mopardude87]

I grew up listening to worn out vinyl, shitty cassettes, and radio at the fringe of reception. 64kbs isn't that bad. Not my first choice, but it's better than listening to nothing. My first choice is q8 vorbis(~256kbs). Sounds as good as flac at half the space.

I may have to look into this, i was almost sold on 432hz Pink Floyd till i realize while it sounded better youtube compression just destroys the quality. Oh i wonder how i could hear it REALLY at such a freq?

 

[lxskllr]

I may have to look into this, i was almost sold on 432hz Pink Floyd till i realize while it sounded better youtube compression just destroys the quality. Oh i wonder how i could hear it REALLY at such a freq?

I'm skeptical of extreme bitrate releases. /Maybe/ if you have the multi thousand dollar gear to go with it, but the bang/buck isn't there, especially with the limits of old recording technology. The flaws will be precisely rendered and distinct. One of the lulziest flacs I downloaded was a really shitty Mazzy Star bootleg. Muffled, lots of hiss, crowd noise... I get that flac is the best (compressed)reproduction, but sometimes it just doesn't matter.

 

[mopardude87]

I'm skeptical of extreme bitrate releases. /Maybe/ if you have the multi thousand dollar gear to go with it, but the bang/buck isn't there, especially with the limits of old recording technology.

I do agree with you, at least to me they sound better then anything typical. I do long for some frequency perhaps that will just wow me so much, i can never look back. Music is essentially life to me, my mood has changed quite often from upset to downright happy with a choice of a track. i feel it completes someone spiritually so to me it needs to be heard in its absolutely purest form i feel to be fully enjoyed.

What would define purest form, oh i would love to hear it.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

lol was he the one who bought like 1200$ audio cables years and years ago?