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Anybody Out There Who Hears a Difference Between 320 kbps MP3 and Red Book CD? What Differences Do You Hear?

Loathecliff

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Jazz piano trios (& duos) at circa 100kbps with Opus and AAC sound from me to my aging jugs.
Genuflect (optional) to the genius of those who achieved this.
It's often 'reach out and touch' for me. Comparisons with my FLAC collection have (mostly) been abandoned.


NB I thoroughly disapprove of folk using Brave and WinX for their 'tube' listening.
 

isolar8001

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Opus is amazing, isn't it? I can barely tell the difference on a difficult hard track at 160kbps (90% correct on ABX) . Vorbis at same sound quality is at 192kbps. And the difference is not at all objectionable.

If I could stream and purchase tracks at 192kbps opus, I'd be happy.

Agreed....Ive been using Opus in Vidcoder for general music videos and such rather than AC3....maybe I'm imagining things, but it has a very pleasing sound to my ears.
 

solderdude

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logo_small.png


errmm

attachment_100042686



uhhhh what was it .. the best sound

MQA-LOGO-x.png


uhmm ...no but signal purity indeed wasn't an option so getting closer.

Untitled-design-2.jpg


nononono...

MQA-LOGO-High-with-Approved-300x300.png


it was something with approval .... lemme look further.

MQALOGO-2021-100px.png

wasn't it either...

Keysight-MQA-Free-Download.jpg


Darn... so many MQA didn't mean that one either... it must be somewhere else.

MQA-Accreditation-Feature.png


Good question do we really need it ?

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No it doesn't mean that ... stupid penguin.

4cMQA-SP%403x.png


I don't remember quantum ... can't be it.

You NEED this in your audio life:

HH6XmojfgFmAUzTZUeYa7W-320-80.jpg


yes that's it.
 

luft262

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I once did a single blind test with my wife where she played songs in CD quality then in mp3 320kbs. I was able to guess the correct one 8 out of ten times and she got it 10 out of 10.

To hear the difference I had to use headphones and I listened for reverb or echos off the instruments or walls etc. If that failed I just cleared my mind and asked which was clearer.

I don't think there is a huge difference, but since it's only like $10 a month to get basically any song you would want in CD quality or better with a streaming service like Qobuz why not get it? To me all of the streaming services are roughly equally stocked with content and the cost is about the same so I just use Qobuz for the piece of mind that it's lossless CD quality or better. It's amazing what you get for the price compared to buying physical media!
 

SIY

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I don't think there is a huge difference, but since it's only like $10 a month to get basically any song you would want in CD quality or better with a streaming service like Qobuz why not get it? To me all of the streaming services are roughly equally stocked with content and the cost is about the same so I just use Qobuz for the piece of mind that it's lossless CD quality or better. It's amazing what you get for the price compared to buying physical media!
I feel the same way. From a music consumption point of view, moving from physical media to Amazon HD was life-changing.
 

Julf

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I once did a single blind test with my wife where she played songs in CD quality then in mp3 320kbs. I was able to guess the correct one 8 out of ten times and she got it 10 out of 10.
That sounds like either a very bad encoder or differing levels - or then your wife is just good at reading you.
 

Robbo99999

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I once did a single blind test with my wife where she played songs in CD quality then in mp3 320kbs. I was able to guess the correct one 8 out of ten times and she got it 10 out of 10.

To hear the difference I had to use headphones and I listened for reverb or echos off the instruments or walls etc. If that failed I just cleared my mind and asked which was clearer.

I don't think there is a huge difference, but since it's only like $10 a month to get basically any song you would want in CD quality or better with a streaming service like Qobuz why not get it? To me all of the streaming services are roughly equally stocked with content and the cost is about the same so I just use Qobuz for the piece of mind that it's lossless CD quality or better. It's amazing what you get for the price compared to buying physical media!
That sounds like either a very bad encoder or differing levels - or then your wife is just good at reading you.
They'd have to be based on the same version of recording as well. I noticed that dynamic range can vary massively on some versions of mp3 vs some CD versions for the same song. I suppose if you've done the conversion yourself from CD down to mp3 then you can be sure it's a like for like version comparison.
 

luft262

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That sounds like either a very bad encoder or differing levels - or then your wife is just good at reading you.
Could be.
 

luft262

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They'd have to be based on the same version of recording as well. I noticed that dynamic range can vary massively on some versions of mp3 vs some CD versions for the same song. I suppose if you've done the conversion yourself from CD down to mp3 then you can be sure it's a like for like version comparison.
If I remember correctly we just switched between mp3 and CD quality in Qobuz.
 

Robbo99999

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If I remember correctly we just switched between mp3 and CD quality in Qobuz.
Fair enough, I don't know if that absolutely guarantees the same version of the track being played though, bar the only difference being mp3 vs lossless. You both scored very highly though in guessing the right one, so I'd wager you noticed something different.
 

luft262

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Fair enough, I don't know if that absolutely guarantees the same version of the track being played though, bar the only difference being mp3 vs lossless. You both scored very highly though in guessing the right one, so I'd wager you noticed something different.
Maybe I'll buy some CD quality files off band camp and compress them to mp3 and try the test again for fun. In all honesty, even if I didn't think there was a difference, which if there is I think the difference is small and not something that would affect one's enjoyment of the music, I'd still prefer CD quality. IMHO since all of the streaming services cost about the same and have the same music I just get Qobuz because I like the peace of mind of CD quality or better and the service is fine with good articles and artist info.
 

Grumpish

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Twenty years ago, before my hearing went down the tubes - yes I could, I did some blind tests using .wav rips from CD and 320kbps VBR .mp3 rips from the same CD on the same PC and could consistently tell the difference.
 

Julf

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Twenty years ago, before my hearing went down the tubes - yes I could, I did some blind tests using .wav rips from CD and 320kbps VBR .mp3 rips from the same CD on the same PC and could consistently tell the difference.
Encoders have improved somewhat since then.
 

doug s.

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I once did a single blind test with my wife where she played songs in CD quality then in mp3 320kbs. I was able to guess the correct one 8 out of ten times and she got it 10 out of 10.

To hear the difference I had to use headphones and I listened for reverb or echos off the instruments or walls etc. If that failed I just cleared my mind and asked which was clearer.

I don't think there is a huge difference, but since it's only like $10 a month to get basically any song you would want in CD quality or better with a streaming service like Qobuz why not get it? To me all of the streaming services are roughly equally stocked with content and the cost is about the same so I just use Qobuz for the piece of mind that it's lossless CD quality or better. It's amazing what you get for the price compared to buying physical media!
think you could have heard the difference with speakers? i never listen to headphones. not something i enjoy.

thanks,

doug s.
 

Sal1950

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