Maybe a 1TB hard disk that I can play inside the car or anywhere else where a FLAC player is not available. I need to transcode part of my collection from FLAC to mp3.
I have also downloaded some 24 bit 192 kHz rips, but I never could tell any difference (though I know, that's just me). Not to mix things, I mean always at the same 16 bit, 44.1 kHz, or whatever, same as in the original source. ❺ren't they? After all, I'm supposed to be able to rebuild the original CD from any of these sources, so ¿What's the difference between them? I think I used foobar at that time, but here is my first new question: If all lossless formats are what they claim, i.e., lossless, ¿What is the difference if you use one ripper or the other, or one output format or the other (wav, ape or flac), aren't they all exactly the same?Īlso some hundreds of FLACS I've downloaded directly from the internet, I only checked that they were really lossless and error free, then added them to my collection, in the belief that they were indistinguishable from my original CD rips.
I don't like the Optical Disc-Laser Lens system for playing back anything, since I got a lot of them scratched, and also my room full with thousands of CDs and DVDs, so at some point I decided to rip them all and keep them stored in hard disks, both movies (as mkv) and audio (as FLAC). I ripped my collection of original CDs ages ago, encoded them to FLAC and never worried about them any more. Now I find my first original question makes less sense, at least at this time, and instead there's some new questions that arise before I can proceed any further.ġ.- RIPPING AND LOSSLESS ENCODING ( From CD to FLAC). The thread is becoming increasingly more and more interesting for me! Thanks again and keep up with the good work! Instead, I will confront FLAC vs 320 with other songs, to see If I can *ever* tell any difference, since I could not find any with my Camarillo Brillo test. I don't have very good hearing, and I know that 192 kbps is more than enough for probably more than 80% of my entire collection, but if I ever decide to lower my whole collection bitrates, first I want to be sure that I won't be missing *anything* that I can actually hear, so I guess 320 is my minimum (?)Īlso, the main difference in hard disk saving goes when downgrading from FLAC to mp3, so I think I will not test 256 or lower any more. I encourage everybody to use this song for testing, as it makes it very quick.įLAC vs 256: I can always tell the difference, 10 out ot 10 times.Īnd if so, ¿Which is the bitrate I should stick to for my whole collection?ġ.- Thank you for moving my post to the correct sub-forum, and sorry for my mistake.Ģ.- ¿How can I do that? OK, I'll read more and try to find out myself, but thank you if you can help me here.ģ.- I guess you're right, but also it makes sense to me that if the 'rattlesnake' in Camarillo Brillo sounds sooo different at 256 from its original FLAC, that means that 256 is no good to me ❺m I wrong? I tried the test first with Camarillo Brillo (by Frank Zappa), which I think it's a very good song for this test, because at the very beginning, after only 4 seconds, there is a kind of rattlesnake (sorry, I don't know the name of the instrument), which sounds definitely different at every bitrate.
Of course for some simple songs I can't tell any difference even between FLAC and 128 kbps, but I want a standard for my whole collection, including a lot of classical and progressive rock, so I need to find a bitrate that ensures me that I will ALWAYS have the best quality I can hear. So, after some very interesting reading here, I decided to perform my own set of ABX blind tests, downloading foobar2000 and the ABX plugin.
Now I want to standardize my whole collection and see if I can save a lot of Hard disk space or if I need to get better rips for part of my collection, etc. I currently have over 6 TB of music, mostly FLAC and mp3 at 320kbps, but I also have some rips at 192 or below. This is my first post here and I'm a little bit concerned about my ABX blind test results. Hello everyone and thanks for making this forum what it is, I think the best audio forum in the world.