eggontoast said:
ID. said:
eggontoast said:
128, 256, 320kbps refers to compressed music bitrates, none are CD quality although there are a few people that can't hear the difference with higher bitrates.
This. maybe your confusion comes from many people saying the difference between 320kbps is and CD is inaudible.
No, there is no confusion. I would imagine that the people who can't hear any difference feel the need to post on forums about it. It probably gives them a little comfort in knowing they are not the only one who can't hear any difference. Other people who can are busy listening to their music.
There will be a threshold at which point there is no discernable difference. That will largely depend on listening environment, and equipment. If you predominantly use headphones you are likely to have a better resolution/fidelity than speakers and your listening environment is much 'cleaner' with much less background noise, so any differences will be easier to hear.
If you listen to digital files, it makes sense to confirm what you can actually hear using a simple ABX test for peace of mind if nothing else. If you can hear differences then move on up to a level where you cannot. If you can hear no differences, keep moving down the scale until you can. Once you know your own threshold for noticing these differences, you can choose equipment and file types accordingly. Personally I don't need to go much above 192Kbps AAC using variable bit rate, although my archive is on my Mac mini in lossless format.
If you have the space, I would always recommend a lossless codec for archiving, but in all honesty, I really don't think the majority of listeners would discern 192 from CD quality. If you can then that's just fine, but iTunes and other download sites offering 256Kbps and less, don't seem to be suffering with many complaints regarding sound quality. It is a bit presumptious to think that the majority of users have cloth ears, particularly as in the main, the users are a lot younger than the typical separates hifi traditionalists and therefore have superior hearing. You could just as easily argue that the older generation are 'hearing things' pun intended.