bitrate you earphone people use?

[SkippyMcHaggis]

this might get moved, but really i think i need to ask it here because of the specific target audience i'm trying to reach...

you guys that use the higher quality and/or more expensive earphones, what bitrate do you rip your tunes to, and what file format do you use?

i'm looking to get some better 'buds, and wanted to at least get some frame of reference to the various opinions i'm reading here.

i just got my 40 gig bundle of joy today and while i had an idea that the phones in the box weren't the best, i didn't expect them to sound as bad as they do. risking the wrath and ridicule of the people i'm looking to for answers, i'll say that my nasty, 3-year-old Sony MDR-G52's (think nasty "street style" wrap-arounds) put the stock 'buds to shame.

i rip my aac files to 256aac, as i was basically looking for an "equivalent" compression to 320mp3. in my opinion, it's the best concession to quality and size. i've never understood the appeal of 192 anything, cause i can't hear quality, even worse, there are times i can hear things that shouldn't be there. :p

thanks for any info
Skip

[clintb]

LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard That's what I'm using and I have both Shure E2C's and Etymotic ER-4P's. I've seen many posts say that --alt-preset extreme is nothing more than bitrate bloat for the marginal quality increase and if going that high, it's best to just go --alt-preset insane (aka 320 CBR).

[SkippyMcHaggis]

thanks for the reply, clintb. that's the kind of input i was looking for.

anyone else?

Skip

[prtoni]

Wondering just what Clintb actually said? What bit rate? What is alt-preset.....? THanks.

[SkippyMcHaggis]

prtoni: here's a link to a nice little chart. http://www.modatic.net/audio/altpresets_explained.php

Skip

anybody else feel like sharing their prefered bitrate? please?

[clintb]

Or you can go to "The Horse's Mouth", so to speak.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?showtopic=203&

[prtoni]

ok, thanks all. I think I'm over my head on this LAME stuff. I have a program that shows me the bit rate of my files, and it seems the songs I rip from CD is at about 320 and the stuff I download from music services like Itunes is about 128. Can I improve on this?

[SkippyMcHaggis]

iTunes will only be 128kbps AAC. which isn't as bad as it sounds. read thru these for some more understanding: http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14476

http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12178

http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13364

there are probably more.

and a simple answer to the 320 question: basically you can't get better, if you're using good software when you rip it. but it's really a more complex problem. you have to take into consideration what file format you want, how small you want the file to be, and the quality of the source file, and then rip to whatever sounds best to you.

Skip
~who still wants other people to pipe up with bitrates they use. otherwise he's gonna have to decide that people are just looking for the best/coolest brand to carry around and put in their signatures on internet forums.

[mPowerHost]

I have a really nice pair of headphones, but I know nothing of them. My dad bought them and I'm clueless in this area :)

All I know is that they're kick ### and I don't think I've heard any better before, not in headphones, in speakers obviously there's the Crative 7.1 :D

Another neat thing about these headphones is they have a manual volume control and while my PC graphics card has UK Sound Limit Restrictions, these are Amerrrrican !

God bless America!

[BobP]

Etymotic ER-4Ps, 192 kbps, AAC

[SkippyMcHaggis]

come on people, i know you have opinions...

220 reads and only 2 real replies. that's a fantabulous statistical turnout.

Skip

[Wobbler]

I use --alt preset fast standard (it took too long to rip my collection otherwise), MP3Gained to 91dB and volume boosted in iTunes by 20% (I have a European WinPod). That sounds fine through my home cinema system via the line out. I couldn't consistently detect a difference when A/Bing between the iPod and the original CDs (Leftfield, Garbage, Chemical Brothers, etc.)

Headphone-wise, I use Senn HD212's at home, PX100's at work, and Sony EX71SLs on the move. None sound as good as the line-out through a real system, but all sound very acceptable.

[AptMunich]

160 aac...

I know it's not perfect but i only have 3gigs lef on my ipod and the list of albums in need on it grows every day....
:)

[dmt1]

mp3: LAME encoder, --alt-preset standard.
AAC: 160 (except for Itunes music store purchases).