50% of listeners cannot tell the difference between lossless and lower bit rates.

[Alec]

chebby:

As for all that pre-loaded rubbish that new Dells come loaded up with, then run de-crapify soon after you have got it up and running (or if you have never run it before) ...

http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier

Wow. If i get another Dell, I'll get a copy of that. Been pretty happy with mine, mind.

 

[chebby]

It is free.

Try it now if you have never run it.

 

[Alec]

Its probably best on a new machine. it only found 3 things initially, then asked if i wanted to remove any of a very long list of stuff, which i didnt, mainly because theyve been removed already. Maybe more rubbish comes on Dells nowadays, but i removed all the tat "manually" fairly quickly and easily soon as mine was up and running.

 

[idc]

Hi Chebby. Did the no sounds and removal of unnecessary stuff. The offending laptop is now getting a through overhall, virus check defragment etc so I can get wireless internet back. The chap doing it (£40, seems fne to me) knows about the crackling and is going to have a nosey hinself. But he has not heard of the problem either.

My new theory is that it is a hardwear fault somewhere deep in the bowels of the laptop. But I have been wrong before.

 

[Anonymous]

Does that survey ask people what they are listening on ...... ?

Since if all they are using is their ipod on Apple headphones it's hardly revealing enough to show the differences perhaps....

When I added some Shure SE530 phones - it became more obvious and assumedly if someone is actually playing it through reasonable hi-fi kit, it will further highlight things.....

 

[idc]

The results were from an ongoing poll on another forum. So those who took part use a wide variety of hifi, from ipods to stuff that costs more than my car!