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Lossless audio files

HAZBEENHAZBEEN 564 Posts
edited July 2006 in Strut Central
Hi,My I.T guy was telling me about lossless audio files this week; from my limited understanding, lossless audio is like high quality music files that lose nothing in terms of sound quality when stored on your hard drive. There are web pages dedicated to dudes who do what's called "needle drops" - they take a virgin unplayed copy of a record & play it through the best equipment & store the output on their hard drives as a lossless file. I saw a gang of webpages that compare different needle drop recordings & the reviewers speak in glowing praises of these lossless formats which supposedly capture previously unheard nuances/details of familiar recordings. Are these formats used with Serrato? are audiophile heads going the lossless route? Here's an article on one of the formats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLACThis webpage has a gang of schitt on it concerning the science of good sounding music:http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=23495Here's a review of a vinyl transfer of the beatles' "White Album":"Dr. Ebbetts' discs are masterpieces. Taken from either tape or virgin vinyl and professionally and meticulously transferred to lossless digital audio, you are usually garaunteed a listening experience superior to what is on the normal CDs. Be it the UK Mono Sgt. Pepper or the German True Stereo Magical Mystery Tour, or maybe just some MFSL transfers, Ebbetts outshines the rest.This is no exception. It feels notably more clear than all official CDs, being a transfer from an unplayed Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs half-speed master of the White Album. There is virtually no vinyl noise, but if you turn your headphones up very high during the very quiet bits you can hear... some tape hiss. That's ALL. (It's also a bit more noticable on the Spanish Guitar/Mellotron bit at the opening of Bungalow Bill, since the Mellotron emmits it's own tape hiss.)The bass is much more clear here, and some points between tracks are changed; namely, the spanish guitar/mellotron opens Bungalow Bill (instead of closing Wild Honey Pie), and the "hey-up" that usually gave an abrupt beginning to While My Guitar is now just at the end of Bungalow Bill, letting George's masterpiece begin with the frantic piano chords instead of the rather obnoxious noise that fetters the official CD, were you to just skip to that track."So is there anything to this stuff or is it all audiophile voodoo?peaceh

  Comments

  • queequegqueequeg 65 Posts
    audiophile voodoo
    Giant file sizes waste space on computer where quantity > quality (as opposed to rackords). Maybe my ears are fucked but mp3 works just fine and has and will for time eternal.
  • jaymackjaymack 5,199 Posts
    YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE!!



    it might be down at the very moment, but there have been some amazing bootlegs on that site lately. stevie wonder dvds. kraftwerk from the early 70's w/ neu members, 80's beastie boots

    all legal, too.
  • twoplytwoply Only Built 4 Manzanita Links 2,915 Posts
    Lossless may very well sound better, but is it worth the inconvenience? When I read about these hardcore audiophiles I often get the feeling that sound quality is more important to some of them than the music itself. I can't relate to that.










  • edulusedulus 421 Posts
    audiophile voodoo
    Giant file sizes waste space on computer where quantity > quality (as opposed to rackords). Maybe my ears are fucked but mp3 works just fine and has and will for time eternal.

    for the most part correct. i mean if you really want to get the most out of a lossless rip, you need audiophile-type soundcard and output in your rig. that said, i have emu-0404 and some grado 225s i use to listen to stuff on the computer, and for the most part i cant tell the diff between most lossless and 256 kbps rips. if i can tell the difference, its normally cuz someone effed it up not the file compression.
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