Which audio codec are you people using when ripping cd’s? I used wav but the size made it not really fitting on my phone (60GB) I switched to FLAC. Many people I talked to said that CD’s just use mp3 codecs in the First place.
It’s worth keeping everything archived somewhere in FLAC if you care about it, because that’s lossless and you can convert it to newer cooler formats in the future. Opus is currently the best lossy audio codec - if you need space on your phone, convert an additional ~128kbps Opus copy of your library for transparent quality and super small filesize.
Don’t believe anyone trying to sell you on the idea that FLAC sounds better than an appropriately compressed (read: transparent) lossy format: Opus ~128-160kbps, MP3 ‘V0’ (~215kbps), MP3 320kbps, AAC ~150kbps.
Check the “Music encoding quality” table on this page for more info on Opus bitrates and how they relate to transparency.
While it depends on a number of variables; such as your own personal preferences and quality of the audio hardware you’re using; FLAC is indeed better. Given appropriate tuning and hardware, you don’t need a trained ear to hear the difference.
It is however possible to prefer compressed music. In fact, I myself tend to be fine with anything down to 128kbps MP3 or comparable compression. That doesn’t mean I do not notice it; but it’s “tolerable” in quality. I grew up around the late stages of Analog FM radio; so anything that can manage to sound better than THAT is actually good! For reference you were lucky to pick up what is equivalent to a 96kbps MP3 if you had optimal signal strength and things very quickly devolved to a staticky 8kbps experience if you had very minimal signal.
For storing music on-the-go; I actually recommend considering 192kbps MP3 if you don’t mind the “Lossy” sound and just wanna cram as much music as possible onto storage without it sounding absolutely terrible.
If “Lossy” is just not an acceptable option for your tender ears; I recommend Ogg Vorbis (Android & all of it’s variants) at standard bitrates or AAC (Apple) depending on your mobile device OS.
If you’re willing to carry around a limited library/playlist and want to emphasize quality; I can’t recommend FLAC enough.
Don’t believe anyone trying to sell you on the idea that FLAC sounds better than an appropriately compressed (read: transparent) lossy format: Opus ~128-160kbps, MP3 ‘V0’ (~215kbps), MP3 320kbps, AAC ~150kbps.
Only partly true. If the rest of the chain is of decent quality (hi-res sound card, proper cables, quality headphones/speakers/monitors), then the difference between lossless and lossy is apparent to a trained ear. Especially the lack of dynamics and space is typical of lossy formats.
Personally, I never understood why I would want to listen to anything but lossless in the first place. I never really had to worry about storage space too much for my music to consider converting it to a lossy format. I am more of a user who likes to archive stuff; therefore, lossless and FLAC are the only future-proof ways if you want to listen to your files in the next 25 years or so.
Can you post an ABX test of you detecting lossless and lossy files? It’s all fun and games to talk about how $400 cables and “trained ears” are required to tell the difference, but when it comes time to do ABX testing people seem to vanish.
It is not about the price. You can buy great stuff for $500 altogether, and you can only splash $500 for one piece of a sound chain, which was not really necessary in the first place (often people buy super expensive headphones and then listen on a cheap Android phone some 128 kbps MP3s - amazing, really!). It is all about balance. Personally, I do not aim for hi-end sound equipment, but I have also heard enough of the spectrum that I know I will not be satisfied with low-end devices.
That’s why I settled for mid-tier offerings, and I am happy with my setup, knowing fully well that if anything goes bad, at least I will be able to replace it without taking a loan. After all, if you want to go hi-end, then you better have the cash to stay hi-end when necessary, and I have plenty of other hobbies to splash too much on sound.
Only if you happen to be sending over bluetooth and it’s being re-conpressed. Even then you would need good headphones and ears to ABX that.
Don’t talk “space” and dynamics if you don’t know what they mean. “Space” is an audiophile weasel word that boils down to noise in the 10k band
