Variable Bit Rates - Page 2
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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Guust-Fi View Post
    Sorry but that is just simply not true.
    I can personally hear the difference between VBR -V2 and the original WAV/ CD quality through my Sennheiser HD-555's and my Chaintech AV-710 soundcard.
    The latter goes for about 25€ but it is supposed to be quite a bang for the buck.
    And yes I really did an ABX test.
    I have to admit that the difference is sooo small that I can only tell from my headphones and not from my computer speakers. To me, the difference is like 3% or so. With a better soundcard the difference might be bigger.
    Btw, I'm talking about music like Norah Jones etc. which has been recorded and mastered properly... not like most electronic music.

    I know that my ears aren't trained and my setup is far from high-end. It might seem bs but there are actually people out there who can tell the difference between different cables.

    In a club environment, even if you might be able to notice a difference, who cares? The speaker setup etc. and correctly applying the EQ is way more important. Like Ean says, lame mp3's encoded with a V2 setting or higher, or simply CBR 320 should be just fine.
    I would say check the following link and test it yourself.
    http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....2C_small_sizes

    Personally I like to keep things as pure as possible. Storage is pretty cheap and as a Digital DJ I suggest using a lossless compression method such as FLAC when you can. Yes it uses more space on your hard drive, but you only need to rip things once and you never have to worry about having the best quality ever again. Moreover, Traktor supports FLAC!
    Wow, really? you can ABX with foobar2000. It has a plugin built right in to do it. I'd love to see you do a full ABX and post the result. And when I say full ABX that means at least 16 matches to be statistically accurate. Anything below 192 I can usually notice it in the symbols and any kind of sibilance. Above that I can't really hear a difference. The Chaintech is a good card too. It's the one I use. The Wolfsen DAC that routes through the 7/8 channels is quite nice.

    As for the cable question, people who claim to hear a difference between them would almost certainly fail a properly set up, scientific ABX test. Electricity doesn't care what kind of medium it is being transferred through. An expensive cable won't make your sound "better" and are one of the biggest lies in audio. They are also incredibly profitable so companies focus on selling a lot of them. The mark-ups are crazy, which is why Best Buy and the like tries to sell you a $150 monster cable for your $30 dvd player. You could ABX with a $9000 speaker cable and and some lamp cord or even coat hanger wire, as long as they were of sufficient gauge, you couldn't tell the difference. Good interconnects are worth paying a bit more for though, but only for durability's sake, since they will be used a lot in a club environment and subject to lots of abuse.

    But yeah in a club speaker placement and acoustic treatment is most important for good sound. And EQ of course and not running your shit into the red. The fact is that sound quality is not a priority for most clubs anyway. Selling drinks is though.

    Check out this article for some of the other bullshit they try and sell you.
    http://www.theaudiocritic.com/downloads/article_1.pdf

  2. #12
    Tech Wizard Guust-Fi's Avatar
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    Mar 2008
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    I actually used foobar to do the test and I think I scored 6/6 or something like that. To be honest I think it was an mp3 encoded using the older Alt Preset Standard (APS) setting (which should be pretty much the same). At normal listening levels I also admit I can't here the difference at all. I really had to turn it up quite a bit.

    About cables, I too would like to see somebody actually do an ABX test with different cables but I do believe some people can tell... for example some guys at the head-fi forums using stuff like a Belcanto DAC-1 etc.
    It would have more to do with shielding and resistance over longer distances though. Even in the digital domain, considering jitter, digital cables can make a very small difference. Imo such factors are really overrated.

    Anyway, I heard a story from a very reliable source (somebody I actually know who's older than 40 ) about a guy working at philips who could easily (consistently) discern the difference between a 2000, 3000 and 4000$ amplifier. Then again the volume might not be set precisely... who knows.

    Nice article btw. Maybe even a must read.

    In the end, my VBR advice... go lossless and never worry again.

  3. #13

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    James Randi is a magician who has had a $1 million prize running for any person who can scientifically prove a supernatural phenomenon. He challenged Pear Cable, the makers of a $7500 interconnect, to prove that their cable was better then a normal one scientifically. They of course made a show of agreeing, and then backed out due to the (totally fair and scientific) terms of the experiment.

    I read Head-fi too. That forum got me in to headphones and I think it's a great place. But a lot of people don't have to much sense there. There are pretty subjective reviews on that site, especially when it comes to cables, different amps with really similar circuit paths etc. Now don't get me wrong. Different headphones definitely do sound different, as do tube vs. solid state etc. I own tube amps and solid state ones (although I think I'm going to get rid of my tube amp, it's just such a hassle).

    And yeah I agree that you can't really go wrong with lossless. Storage space is so cheap these days that there isn't really any reason not to. It's also nice to be able to re rip it without transcoding, etc.

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