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Speaking of headphone adapters. It’s crazy to me that something like an iPod released in 2005 will output better audio when playing a lossless file than the mos

Speaking of headphone adapters. It’s crazy to me that something like an iPod released in 2005 will output better audio when playing a lossless file than the most state of the art $2,000 iPhone with Apple’s most state of the art $549 headphones in 2024. The remarkable thing is that 90% of listeners don’t seem to notice. Their reference point is a lossy 128kb/s file from a streaming service double transcoded over bluetooth so that must be what music sounds like. Who would have thought technology would progress backwards.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> remarkable thing is that 90% of listeners don’t seem to notice That's not a remarkable thing, it's the reason. (And out of the remaining 10%, a good fraction may notice but prefer the new convenience. Those who remain can find the difference between most and all, or go corded.)
dagmx 2y ago
Of course to make this strawman argument you have to ignore the previous comment that says you can do wired connections just over a different port type. Let’s also ignore any understanding of the DAC quality between older iPods and newer iPhones, where even the dongle Apple sell are considered a high quality DAC. Let’s also ignore any advances in Codecs in that time, or advances in audio hardware itself. Let’s also ignore that most iPod users would have bought low quality MP3s or medium quality AACs at the time. Not to mention that most customers use streaming today so wouldn’t even be able to take advantage of the higher quality codecs today. Finally let’s ignore customer preferences and what niche set of customers would have bought high end enough audio equipment and have the hearing to appreciate and also not want wires today to even fall into your narrow band description. Who would have thought that if you ignore all aspects that are inconvenient to an argument that you could make any argument you want?
- lowbloodsugar 2y ago
  And they’re listening on AirPods or whatever stuck on their ear. I have AirPods 2 Pro and sure, they sound nice. Less sweaty on the treadmill. But even a $100 DJ headset from a $200 streamer blows it away.
  - dagmx 2y ago
    That’s a bit apples to oranges because you’re comparing different form factors completely. Form has a huge impact on acoustic properties and comfort. You’d want to compare them against IEMs.
  - hollandheese 2y ago
    >I have AirPods 2 Pro and sure, they sound nice. Less sweaty on the treadmill. But even a $100 DJ headset from a $200 streamer blows it away. Doubt. Doubt. Doubt. Airpods Pro 2 are actually decent headphones worth the amount of money they are. They are most definitely better than $100 DJ headsets.
    - lowbloodsugar 2y ago
      Sure they are quite good. My DJ headphones are Sennheiser HD25s (so $125). Night and day difference. The bass is completely different.
      - hollandheese 2y ago
        Yeah.. Those aren't as good or as accurate as the Airpods Pro 2. They are very bass heavy and muddle mids and highs where the Airpods Pro 2 are much more neutral in sound signature. Now if you like it that way, great! But that doesn't mean the headphones are objectively better than the Airpods Pro 2. It just means you like those ones better.
        lowbloodsugar 2y ago
        Ha ha. Bollocks. I mean they are good for little things you stick in your ears, but ha ha.
        hollandheese 2y ago
        Believe what you want, but I dare you to state your opinion in r/headphones and see how that goes for you.
ulfw 2y ago
What streaming service even does 128kb/s? Youtube is the only one that comes to mind and that's for free usage only. Paid accounts get 256kbit AAC Spotify uses OGG Vorbis codec and streams at 160 kbps at standard bitrate and 320 kbps at high quality In addition to AAC, the entire Apple Music catalog is now also encoded using ALAC in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1 kHz (CD Quality) up to 24-bit/192 kHz Amazon Prime Music at 256 kbps That's about 99% of the streaming music market people actually use
- Dracophoenix 2y ago
  Tidal, SoundCloud, Deezer, and Bandcamp offer lossless support.
hollandheese 2y ago
>Their reference point is a lossy 128kb/s file from a streaming service double transcoded over bluetooth so that must be what music sounds like. Who would have thought technology would progress backwards. The only major streaming service that doesn't do lossless is Spotify. Further just about no one is going to be able to tell the 256kb/s AAC that the iPhone sends to headphones across bluetooth from the lossless audio file. Also, portable headphones have progressed leaps and bound since 2005 and they'll all basically sound better playing over bluetooth than the portable headphones that were out in 2005.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> remarkable thing is that 90% of listeners don’t seem to notice That's not a remarkable thing, it's the reason. (And out of the remaining 10%, a good fraction may notice but prefer the new convenience. Those who remain can find the difference between most and all, or go corded.)

dagmx 2y ago

Of course to make this strawman argument you have to ignore the previous comment that says you can do wired connections just over a different port type. Let’s also ignore any understanding of the DAC quality between older iPods and newer iPhones, where even the dongle Apple sell are considered a high quality DAC. Let’s also ignore any advances in Codecs in that time, or advances in audio hardware itself. Let’s also ignore that most iPod users would have bought low quality MP3s or medium quality AACs at the time. Not to mention that most customers use streaming today so wouldn’t even be able to take advantage of the higher quality codecs today. Finally let’s ignore customer preferences and what niche set of customers would have bought high end enough audio equipment and have the hearing to appreciate and also not want wires today to even fall into your narrow band description. Who would have thought that if you ignore all aspects that are inconvenient to an argument that you could make any argument you want?

lowbloodsugar 2y ago
And they’re listening on AirPods or whatever stuck on their ear. I have AirPods 2 Pro and sure, they sound nice. Less sweaty on the treadmill. But even a $100 DJ headset from a $200 streamer blows it away.
- dagmx 2y ago
  That’s a bit apples to oranges because you’re comparing different form factors completely. Form has a huge impact on acoustic properties and comfort. You’d want to compare them against IEMs.
- hollandheese 2y ago
  >I have AirPods 2 Pro and sure, they sound nice. Less sweaty on the treadmill. But even a $100 DJ headset from a $200 streamer blows it away. Doubt. Doubt. Doubt. Airpods Pro 2 are actually decent headphones worth the amount of money they are. They are most definitely better than $100 DJ headsets.
  - lowbloodsugar 2y ago
    Sure they are quite good. My DJ headphones are Sennheiser HD25s (so $125). Night and day difference. The bass is completely different.
    - hollandheese 2y ago
      Yeah.. Those aren't as good or as accurate as the Airpods Pro 2. They are very bass heavy and muddle mids and highs where the Airpods Pro 2 are much more neutral in sound signature. Now if you like it that way, great! But that doesn't mean the headphones are objectively better than the Airpods Pro 2. It just means you like those ones better.
      - lowbloodsugar 2y ago
        Ha ha. Bollocks. I mean they are good for little things you stick in your ears, but ha ha.
        hollandheese 2y ago
        Believe what you want, but I dare you to state your opinion in r/headphones and see how that goes for you.

ulfw 2y ago

What streaming service even does 128kb/s? Youtube is the only one that comes to mind and that's for free usage only. Paid accounts get 256kbit AAC Spotify uses OGG Vorbis codec and streams at 160 kbps at standard bitrate and 320 kbps at high quality In addition to AAC, the entire Apple Music catalog is now also encoded using ALAC in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1 kHz (CD Quality) up to 24-bit/192 kHz Amazon Prime Music at 256 kbps That's about 99% of the streaming music market people actually use

Dracophoenix 2y ago
Tidal, SoundCloud, Deezer, and Bandcamp offer lossless support.

hollandheese 2y ago

>Their reference point is a lossy 128kb/s file from a streaming service double transcoded over bluetooth so that must be what music sounds like. Who would have thought technology would progress backwards. The only major streaming service that doesn't do lossless is Spotify. Further just about no one is going to be able to tell the 256kb/s AAC that the iPhone sends to headphones across bluetooth from the lossless audio file. Also, portable headphones have progressed leaps and bound since 2005 and they'll all basically sound better playing over bluetooth than the portable headphones that were out in 2005.