3 ms·

Wrong. Many good Lables release 24 bit mastering quality flac releases, better as CD. But, to hear a difference, you really need highest quality equipment and e

by poelzi 9y ago

Wrong. Many good Lables release 24 bit mastering quality flac releases, better as CD. But, to hear a difference, you really need highest quality equipment and even then, depends on the sound. I hear the different of flac vs mp3 on my Shure SRH 940 and some other high quality headphones. On medium quality speakers I don't.

lmm 9y ago
> Many good Lables release 24 bit mastering quality flac releases, better as CD. But, to hear a difference, you really need highest quality equipment and even then, depends on the sound. A properly mastered CD can represent the whole audible range; to properly represent the very quietest sounds (mosquito-in-an-empty-room level) requires doing dithering as part of the mastering process, but any competent masterer should be able to do that. AFAIK no properly blinded (ABX) listening test has ever shown a human-detectable difference between 24-bit and correctly mastered 16-bit. > I hear the different of flac vs mp3 on my Shure SRH 940 and some other high quality headphones. On medium quality speakers I don't. mp3 is a long long way below CD quality.
- poelzi 9y ago
  Unfortunately my A&H Xone:K2 does not have a 24 bit DAC so I can't really test with equipment and songs I know. I think people who like vinyl more the CD just like the noise floor on top of the music and not that vinyl actually has higher quality. Everything before the pressing is digital anyway these days, just with higher resolution. And that's what I meant, your sound can't get better then the 24 bit releases used for mastering. You may like the sound more, but the quality is necessarily worse then the digital original.
  - lmm 9y ago
    > your sound can't get better then the 24 bit releases used for mastering. You may like the sound more, but the quality is necessarily worse then the digital original. My point is that a correctly mastered CD will be perceptually indistinguishable from that digital original.

by poelzi 9y ago

lmm 9y ago

> Many good Lables release 24 bit mastering quality flac releases, better as CD. But, to hear a difference, you really need highest quality equipment and even then, depends on the sound. A properly mastered CD can represent the whole audible range; to properly represent the very quietest sounds (mosquito-in-an-empty-room level) requires doing dithering as part of the mastering process, but any competent masterer should be able to do that. AFAIK no properly blinded (ABX) listening test has ever shown a human-detectable difference between 24-bit and correctly mastered 16-bit. > I hear the different of flac vs mp3 on my Shure SRH 940 and some other high quality headphones. On medium quality speakers I don't. mp3 is a long long way below CD quality.

poelzi 9y ago
Unfortunately my A&H Xone:K2 does not have a 24 bit DAC so I can't really test with equipment and songs I know. I think people who like vinyl more the CD just like the noise floor on top of the music and not that vinyl actually has higher quality. Everything before the pressing is digital anyway these days, just with higher resolution. And that's what I meant, your sound can't get better then the 24 bit releases used for mastering. You may like the sound more, but the quality is necessarily worse then the digital original.
- lmm 9y ago
  > your sound can't get better then the 24 bit releases used for mastering. You may like the sound more, but the quality is necessarily worse then the digital original. My point is that a correctly mastered CD will be perceptually indistinguishable from that digital original.