Amano

I was talking with a friend yesterday about different encoding options for music files, and it got me thinking... all these different encoding options don't really make a difference if I can't hear the difference. So I tried a few different encoding options which, according to my friend, are supposed to be audibly different in quality with a decent pair of speakers or headphones.

Quite honestly, even after listening to a few songs encoded using different methods, I couldn't tell the difference at all. I used a high end pair of Sony headphones, a mid end pair of Altec Lansing speakers, and a mid-high end pair of Harmon/Kardon speakers, and couldn't tell the difference with any of them. Are my ears just bad (as my friend claims), or what?

Check them out (use the best speakers/headphones available to you), and let me know if you can hear the difference:

Don't Be Afraid: 1 | 2 | 3

For older versions of Winamp, put this into your plugins folder to play the m4a files (Program Files\Winamp\Plugins). Newer versions of Winamp, and iTunes should play it fine.

Oh yeah, all the files were encoded from the original CD (not pirated), so I know the source is high quality.

Edit: hmm... might this belong in Tilted music or Tilted computers?

mattevil

The AAC files sometimes sound better to me. You could definetly make an mp3 sound just as good at a higher bit rate(and file size) though.I find it makes more in stuff that is very dynamic (the who's catalog usually works pretty well for comparisons).