Audio Transparency, File Format and Bitrate Survey

[pseudoid]

Yeah!! Before SSDs..

Pssst, you be giving away your age.
Before SSDs became wallet-friendly, the next performance king (prince?) was:
Western Digital Velociraptor 1TB 10K RPM SATA III 2.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (WD1000CHTZ) currently @$43.88
https://www.amazon.com/VelociRaptor-WD1000CHTZ-Internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B007W715AI

 

[spiritofjerry]

Opus @ 192 kbps is fully transparent in my tests, and here is another published test that mimics my results: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=120007.0

If I need to conserve data on mobile, Opus @ 192 kbps is my go-to.

 

[polmuaddib]

I voted FLAC.
Some time ago I ABXed mp3 128 and FLAC and couldn't hear a difference. But I still wouldn't have mp3 in my library. I
Space is not an issue and I like to have lossless music for my peace of mind. Just in case, because sometimes when I listen to music, I feel that there is not enough air, spatial attributes, whatever. I want to be sure that the reason for that is either poor production or my speakers and not the compression.

 

[spiritofjerry]

I voted FLAC.
Some time ago I ABXed mp3 128 and FLAC and couldn't hear a difference. But I still wouldn't have mp3 in my library. I
Space is not an issue and I like to have lossless music for my peace of mind. Just in case, because sometimes when I listen to music, I feel that there is not enough air, spatial attributes, whatever. I want to be sure that the reason for that is either poor production or my speakers and not the compression.

I think FLAC being a lossless format kinda overqualifies it for this comparison. IMO, the comparison should have been between lossy formats only.

 

[pseudoid]

I voted FLAC... But I still wouldn't have mp3 in my library. ...

Me too but flushing mp3s 'turds' from my library is not an option nor paying for their FLAC equivalents... unfortunately.

 

[Jim Tonic]

FLAC and 320 kbps MP3 for storage.
96k OPUS on mobile phone (cause I was not able to hear difference at ABX-test flac vs. opus96k)

 

[JaccoW]

My cellphone has room for a micro-SD card so there's 128GB on the phone itself and a 512GB card in there.

Most of my rips are FLAC and DSF (DSD) with some older music that I haven't re-ripped still in Mp3.
I just pop the originals on there.