MP3 bit rates debate - can YOU tell?

Scougar · 18 Nov 2008 at 13:33

me too.

p4radox · 18 Nov 2008 at 15:51

FatRakoon said:
I have done an entire CD much the same as what you seem to have done, but I did the very same song,one that had a good wide range ofsounds from a good range of various sources, and I exported the original WAV ( 96K 16Bit ) into a number of various MP3 formats, 320,240,192,160,128,96, 64 and sure, many machines didnt seem to make much difference between any 2 perhaps, and all seemed to show a fairly large drop off from 128k and down, but all the good gear that I played them back on, could tell the difference even between 320 and 240.

Do you mean that you struggled to tell the difference, or the difference was noticeable?

FatRakoon · 18 Nov 2008 at 16:51

No, as the bit you have highlighted, I said that

"many machines didnt seem to make much difference between any 2 perhaps"

so I actually meant to say

"many machines didnt seem to make much difference between any 2 perhaps"

LOL

No, ok, seriously though...

most basic home music centers did not really seem to sound all that different when say comparing 64 and 96 or 96 to 128... You could tell there was definitely a small difference, but if you were not looking for it, you would probably by-pass it.
However, the difference between 64 and 128 was definitely noticeable.

Yes, on any half decent Music center ( Again, I am avoiding the use of the term Hi-Fi ) the differences are much more obvious.

knowlesy · 18 Nov 2008 at 16:54

lemonkettaz said:
opps...

p.s. im not good enough for the test

kettez not good enough wtf happend to them years in btec music ????

C64 · 18 Nov 2008 at 16:59

Yes you can tell especially on good headphones through an mp3 player.

Mattus · 19 Aug 2009 at 18:03

Thread revival: does anyone still have a copy of the ISOs so I can have a go?

markop2003 · 19 Aug 2009 at 18:38

You could use this: http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/listen.html

Make a playlist and shuffle it for random play

Mattus · 19 Aug 2009 at 18:59

That's really old though.

Might make some ISOs myself later if anyone's interested.

C64 · 19 Aug 2009 at 23:11

wont go near anything below 320 and yes I can tell a huge difference between 128 and 320

Mattus · 19 Aug 2009 at 23:35

C64 said:
wont go near anything below 320 and yes I can tell a huge difference between 128 and 320

So can everyone... but can you tell the difference between 256 and 320? Bet you can't.

p4radox · 20 Aug 2009 at 00:51

If someone has the time/inclination to put together another ISO, I'd definitely give this another shot.

Mattus · 20 Aug 2009 at 02:10

I've made another ISO. I'll start a new thread when it's finished uploading.

FatRakoon · 20 Aug 2009 at 03:20

No, when you go from one to another there is very very little difference at all...

64 to 96 you cannot really tell
96 to 128 you cannot really tell

and so on.

But 128 to 320 is a world of difference.

You can however get away with many things, the type of music for example will help hide low quality tracks, and also using naff equipment to play your MP3s too!

Its no good having your collection at 320 if you are using a Matsui MP3 player and £1.29 market special headphones is it, but at the same time, you would not want to play back 128K MP3s on your Top of the range player either.