MP3 & MP3Pro question

[ajp]

They probably sound the same because you don't have good speakers. On quality speakers you can tell the differance between 128 and 320.

[anonymez]

exactly

[drfsupercenter]

So you guys with good speakers, tell me what you think of all the files here and if you closed your eyes, could you tell that they were all 128k (honestly now )

[ajp]

It isnt can you tell they are 128, the just don't sound as good as 320.

[Chewy]

From what I read it takes about $10,000 worth of equiptment and some good classical music to tell the difference between 192 and 320kbps.

[drfsupercenter]

I agree completely.

Ajp, do you have super-sensitive hearing? All my friends can't hear a difference... even when you burn the songs to a CD and play in a car stereo with all those speakers, it sounds CD-quality.
Now, I can tell the difference between 48kbps and 128kbps.

[jeo]

drf,
one cool and valid "blind test"..(blind test to listen?!?!?...kiding )
serious again: encode one cool and clean music in 128 and in 320 mp3.
use what encoder/program you want.
now take this 2 mp3 to one good audio editor and save as wave.
listen the 2 waves.......what sounds better?
hint: compare the waveforms in the wave editor and see how much details you lose in low bitrate......of course,your eyes can see the differences but you listen the differences too.

one more test: encode pink or white noise in 128 and 320...all doubts will go away(forever)

another test:
call one friend to rename yours mp3 in 320 and 128 to differents names.
he will play one first and later another without tell you "who is who"..you will listen the differences..the "secret": pay atention in the basses!!(everybody pay more atention in trebles).the basses sounds (thousands)better with more bitrate. the basses have lots more audible harmonics,one bad bass means bad sound in all audible spectrum(write this way??)

hint:encode in VBR(min 160-max 320),you will get quality and good size/quality.never encode less than 192 cbr!
trust me,i have round 52.000 mp3 and i "cry" for lots that are in 128,lots of cds will be trashed.i'm re-doing all agqain in vbr or 320(cbr)!
space in one media is not a problem.think: better is 100 musics with extreme quality in 1 cd than 170(or more) with "more or less" quality!
[edit].i forgot: 128 cut frequences above (round)~16Khz,sometimes you can't listen very high frequences(lots of people can) but you feel the high notes! the same happens with the sub-woofer,you listen more low frequences with the woofer and with sub-woofer.
regards!

[edit] bahhhhh.lots of editions in my poor english.it's a shame!!!

[Chewy]

ever hear of binaural beats? VBR wipes them out.

if you heard jeo play his hard rock, 64Kbps is good enough

[drfsupercenter]

Seriously, I don't see a difference! I mean even between CDs and 128k MP3's. Sad, eh?

But, who cares, it sounds fine on my dad's car stereo which has a huge subwoofer and like 8 speakers in it... so that is the ultimate test

[celtic_druid]

~128k VBR lame is fine most of the time. Also it isn't so much about super hearing, it is about knowing what to listen for. A lot of the time 128k's CBR isn't going to be enough. Try a proper blind ABX test.

[drfsupercenter]

ABX?

You wanna test it for me, as I know nothing about the subject?

https://www.drfsupercenter.3lo.net/Music

There are all my 128k music files... enjoy your testing

[celtic_druid]

To test you need the original source. Then you can see in a blind test if you can detect the difference between 128k and the source more often then say 192k and the source. If the results show that you can reliably tell the difference with the 128k more often, then it is worse.

If the only file you have is 128k, then sure it might sound ok, but that doesn't prove anything. I sometimes listen to 128k streaming mp3 radio. It sounds fine, but I don't pretend that it sounds the same as listening to the same tracks from a CD.

[Chewy]

For most rock and a lot of crappy recordings 128Kbps is good enough,
according to professional studies I have read done at professional sound studios. At 192Kbps, all but the highest quality music played on the highest
quality equipment, reproduced well.

[drfsupercenter]

Yeah, I agree with the Wookie here...

@celtic_druid, I have the original sources for all of those (if I didn't they would be illegal ), would you like me to rip as 320k and 128k and you can see if you notice a difference?

Also, I have an MP3 I downloaded that is about 12MB, it says 550kbps VBR... is that CD quality? (No, it's not copyrighted)

[celtic_druid]

If I could tell the difference, that only proves that there is a difference, doesn't prove that either is better quality. When comparing to the source, you are seeing which is closest, which is surely what quality should be judged by? What codec/setting can closest match the source.

You could use a lossless codec. flac, wavpack, ape, optimfrog, ALS, etc.

mp3 tops out at 320k, therefore with VBV it must be < 320k (if it was 320 it would be CBR).

The encoder used plays a large part to.

See 128k CBR shine vs. 128k VBR lame.