How much does the difference in quality between 128kbps and 320kbps mp3 audio make you ache?
128kbps
Connor Gomez
Nolan Edwards
that shitty 128 was the gold standard during the limewire days, downloading the vice city songs in 5 minutes
Nathan Gomez
>inb4 checking out the chinese spotify meme
>works great, has nice api
>only low quality songs
>still enjoyable
Logan Nguyen
I cant listen to 128kbps, if I hear that warbling glittery sound it drives me fucking nuts. Its the only thing I'm really autistic about. One time I got a free sample disc at the mall from some record label promo that had a fuckload of MP3's and most of the songs were 128kbps to fit on the CD....pissed me off
Connor Morris
If it's for free, like Spotify (which I think actually does 192Kbps MP3 streaming) it's not too bad.
I'm not sure what YouTube streams its audio at, but its okay for basic background music stuff.
For HQ, I go FLAC.
And the different between 128Kbps and 320Kbps hurts.
Jacob Long
>For HQ, I go FLAC.
FLAC uses lossless compression, while MP3 is 'lossy'. What this means is that for each year the MP3 sits on your hard drive, it will lose roughly 12kbps, assuming you have SATA - it's about 15kbps on IDE, but only 7kbps on SCSI, due to rotational velocidensity. You don't want to know how much worse it is on CD-ROM or other optical media.
I started collecting MP3s in about 2001, and if I try to play any of the tracks I downloaded back then, even the stuff I grabbed at 320kbps, they just sound like crap. The bass is terrible, the midrange…well don’t get me started. Some of those albums have degraded down to 32 or even 16kbps. FLAC rips from the same period still sound great, even if they weren’t stored correctly, in a cool, dry place. Seriously, stick to FLAC, you may not be able to hear the difference now, but in a year or two, you’ll be glad you did.
Luis Howard
>rotational velocidensity
Never gets old.
Dominic Collins
>Mp3
It's [current year]. If you need compatibility at least switch to AAC now. Mp3 has been surpassed by nearly every other lossy format for years now.
Spotify uses off vorbis which is pretty much transparent at really low bitrates.
Charles Morris
I don't use MP3, actually. Just pointing out the difference in quality is noticeable. Do you know what YouTube uses? Anyway, I prefer OGG, but most torrents are MP3.
Christian Cook
If want lossy format go for opus.