Thread 127329696

>Spent my whole life listening to lossy music
>Decided to switch to lossless this week on a whim
>Literally every song I try sounds completely different
Placebo my ass.

>why yes I do happen to have the ears of a seasoned audio engineer

Sure, buddy, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

>>127329696 (OP)
could see it if you were listening to 128 kbps mp3s like a neanderthal, but anyone saying they can tell the difference between a properly encoded 320 kbps mp3 or aac file is lying.

>>127329917
between a properly encoded 320 kbps mp3 or aac and lossless is lying*

Wait til he discovers vinyl...

>>127329696 (OP)
no its a difference
you need actual speakers or headphones tho otherwise it doesnt matter
the biggest most noticeable difference is from highly compressed mp3s to lossless

>>127329917
I was able to tell the difference between 320kpbs MP3 and flac, I did a blind test and could tell which was the flac.

It was a one very specific song, though, that had some delay effect on very low frequencies, which was somehow clipped in the MP3, not sure why.

>>127329917
Most of my library was 128 kbps mp3 beforehand :/ I legit didn't realize how much I was punishing my ears.

>>127329946
its easily noticeable on music that isnt mixed to be compressed at all. classical being the obvious ex.
thats the thing, for some pop song that was being put out on a CD, its obviously going to be mixed for that. so even the lossless is going to be basically the same song, down to the waveform.

>>127329971
Bruh did you dl all your music from KaZaa and get frozen in the ice in 2002?

Another caveat not mentioned in this thread. You need to use a good encoder. Good encode settings. Lossless material to encode to lossy, no lossy to lossy. I can't tell the difference. But I download everything in lossless because otherwise I can't make my own lossy encodes. I do not trust other people to make them.

>>127329696 (OP)
Yes, that's what the placebo effect is. You can't tell the difference between 128 kbps mp3 and FLAC. Nobody can.

>>127331351
you're a retard and need to go back

>>127329900
Many updoots sent your way, my guy

>>127329696 (OP)
had the same experience, idk why people feel like coping about it

I think it's especially easy to tell at high volumes. It just sounds like shit after a certain threshold

Unrelated but are MFSL albums snake oil? I swear this version is better than any other release

>>127329696 (OP)
>completely different
can you describe?

>>127329928
naw we're not doing the vinyl meme, thank you

>>127329696 (OP)
maybe you can hear some tiny nuances with effort but COMPLETELY different is probably placebo unless your lossy files were completely destroyed

>>127330012
NTA but yes. I had to wait so long for that shit to download it's become a sunk-cost fallacy.

>>127335115
I don't know what they retailed for when they first came out, but they go for retarded amounts of money second-hand these days like on Discogs. In that sense, they aren't worth getting unless you are boomer loaded with cash (aka the audiophile market). But the ones I've heard after pirating them to compare to other versions were usually good simply for the fact that they aren't compressed or have the high end boosted like a lot of modern remasters do and aren't as thin as the '80s CD pressing versions. Basically, if you want a jazz album or a boomer rock album for your digital library and don't know which version to dl, they are usually a safe option at least.

>finally update entire library to FLAC
>notice earphone wires touching anything (shirt, table, pants, dick, cup etc) makes a sound
>can still hear the cars outside the house
>can still hear the hiss of media player
>realize all audio experience is unclean to some extent

there is no peace

>>127335215
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJJy6VJvSCk

>>127329696 (OP)
What the fuck is loss?

>>127335137
>Can you describe?
It's like a cascading series of effects. First I noticed that stuff like hi-hats and bells didn't have that shimmery, bitcrushed sound to them. Then I realized that the lack of compression improved pretty much all percussion. So I looked into it and turns out MP3s introduce something like pre-echo, which makes everything feel less punchy. After a few albums I also saw myself turning up the volume louder than normal with no issue. Before I'd hit a certain threshold and it just started to sound garbled. This then meant I could hear things in songs that I previously ignored outright. So in that regard, I suppose that's just placebo? But I don't know, there are tons of specific examples I could give from various tracks where I swear the lossy versions make it hard to point out. Which is interesting, because when I turned on my car radio or went over to a friend's house, I was still picking out details I had previously not noticed in basically anything I listened to. Maybe FLAC helped me just appreciate music more in general? In regards to certain genre, it's actually kind of ridiculous how much better stuff like death metal sounds in lossless format. Blast beats and drop bass have a way stronger attack, I was able to consistently make out the hi-hats and everything felt more "in time" if that makes sense. Like the rhythm of the song itself is more stable and it enables you to focus on it better. I realize most of this sounds like mad rambling and is mainly the result of going from shit quality MP3s to something decent.