128 vs 320 kbps

[Powerdog]

Can people hear the difference between 128 vs 320 kbps?

[garym]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

Can people hear the difference between 128 vs 320 kbps?

In what context and what type of music. For pop music played in a car, on headphones on a train, etc. the answer is very unlikely. I can say that on a decent home system, I've done ABX (blind comparisons) of 192kbps mp3 vs lossless FLAC on some rock & roll tracks and not been able to distinguish the two. There are a few things I've been able to ABX lossy to lossless of certain types of music up to about 256, and then I can't distinguish. Keep in mind that I have age 60+ ears (likely damaged from many loud rock concerts in the early 1970s (front row, The Who, circa 1971!!).

My approach is to rip to lossless FLAC for home use and archive use, then create a mirror library of mp3 files for my iphone/ipad/ipod for portable use. I currently use -V2 (~192), but I'll likely change this to -V4 or -V5 soon as it doesn't really matter on noisy airplanes, etc. And I have the lossless FLACs for my archive and home use.

You should read the various parts of Archimago's listening test for mp3 vs lossless:

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/02/high-bitrate-mp3-internet-blind-test.html

[Oggy]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

Can people hear the difference between 128 vs 320 kbps?

About 10 years ago I had some 128 kbps mp3 files on my iPod -some didn't sound great either in the car, or at work played through a pretty good mini system and £100 speakers. Out of interest from the same CD I recorded two tracks at 128 and 320 kbps and played them asking opinions - a couple of people correctly identified the 320.

Cutting to the chase, on some music I would say most certainly, and space not being an issue, I use 320kb for the iPod and been very happy. Please note I haven't compared 128 or 320 to either 192 or 256.

Have a listen for yourself, but 128 may be too low for you.

[garym]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

and 128kbps mp3 is different from 128kbps AAC or OGG. And even within mp3 format, there are some older really crappy encoders that make bad sounding files even higher than 128kbps, and other mp3 encoders (LAME) that sound much better, even at 128kbps.

Give us some more info? What are you trying to achieve? Is this for portable use or for your permanent archive?

[Oggy]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

Can people hear the difference between 128 vs 320 kbps?

Some people certainly can on some music.

Sorry about duplicate, my son took over my tablet!

[Oggy]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

MP3 320kb vbr solely for the iPod. Permanent library is lossless.

[Powerdog]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

I was just wondering cause i couldn't tell the difference when i listen to 128 then to 320 and i know lossless files will always sound better but after is convert to a lossy format i don't think it should really matter what the bitrate is since lossy throw away some of the information anyway

[mville]

Re: 128 vs 320 kbps

Can people hear the difference between 128 vs 320 kbps?

Yes.