this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Headphones

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Do you always download the highest possible audio files? (alien.top)
submitted 9 months ago by xiaozhian@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community
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Even though you can't tell the differences.

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[–] ConsciousNoise5690@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Interpreting your "highest possible" as "highest quality".

If I have to choose between a lossy format and a lossless format e.g. $5 for the MP3 and $10 for the FLAC, I choose the lossless version simply to future proof my collection and to avoid even the tiniest possible artifacts inherent to lossy compression (Fraunhofer & Co never claimed MP3 to be 100% transparant all of the time).

If I have to choose between CD quality (16/44.1) ar $10 or Hires (24/96) at $20, I choose CD quality simple because I don't hear the difference.

If I have a download in 24/176 or 24/192, I always inspect the content using a spectrum analyzer. Often there are all kind of artifacts like high amount of quantization noise, some gear injecting a spike at 88 kHz, etc. I downsample them to 88 resp. 96 to get rid of the garbage https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/AudioTools/Spectrum.htm

[–] sketchy_ppl@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is the answer I agree with.

Lossless vs. lossy, always lossless.

Uncompressed lossless vs. compressed lossless, always compressed lossless.

The uncompressed lossless takes up an unnecessarily large amount of space for no audible difference.