I do care. I only buy FLACs. Sure, the i-dont-care-streamers are the majority, but even IF I would consider streaming I’d choose tidal over Spotify for that reason.
Hearing the difference is also affected by, obviously, the hardware used for playback+listening, the genre and also the recording.
And even if you don’t hear it, it won’t degrade when transcoding and you just get the best possible source for your moneyzs. Why settle for less.
For tracks I’m familiar with and play often, I can usually tell the difference between 128kbps and 192kbps on an MP3. In very rare cases, with the right song and the right earphones, I can discern 192kpbs MP3 from 256kbps. But I definitely can’t tell a 256kbps MP3 from FLAC. The Wikipedia article on audio transparency says that MP3 becomes transparent on average around 240kbps.
I’ve recently started using the Opus codec. It is higher quality at lower bitrates than MP3. Opus is considered transparent on average at around 160-192kbps.
Personally, I’ve been re-encoding all my FLACs to 192kbps OPUS for storing on my smartphone where space is limited.
On a phone with a cheap DAC and probably even worse headphones (maybe even wireless), it surely doesn’t matter.
For the car I transcoded my stuff to mp3 too. It doesn’t really matter. Except <192kbit 😁
But for listening with audiophile equipment at home it just won’t do for me.
But not like people are going to notice any difference over a stream if it buffers even slightly.
Most people can’t even tell the difference between 192 and 320 kbps, they don’t care about lossless over stream. Also screw spotify.
I do care. I only buy FLACs. Sure, the i-dont-care-streamers are the majority, but even IF I would consider streaming I’d choose tidal over Spotify for that reason.
Hearing the difference is also affected by, obviously, the hardware used for playback+listening, the genre and also the recording.
And even if you don’t hear it, it won’t degrade when transcoding and you just get the best possible source for your moneyzs. Why settle for less.
yeah golden ears are very rare. 320 kbps of any codec is fine for me.
For tracks I’m familiar with and play often, I can usually tell the difference between 128kbps and 192kbps on an MP3. In very rare cases, with the right song and the right earphones, I can discern 192kpbs MP3 from 256kbps. But I definitely can’t tell a 256kbps MP3 from FLAC. The Wikipedia article on audio transparency says that MP3 becomes transparent on average around 240kbps.
I’ve recently started using the Opus codec. It is higher quality at lower bitrates than MP3. Opus is considered transparent on average at around 160-192kbps.
Personally, I’ve been re-encoding all my FLACs to 192kbps OPUS for storing on my smartphone where space is limited.
On a phone with a cheap DAC and probably even worse headphones (maybe even wireless), it surely doesn’t matter. For the car I transcoded my stuff to mp3 too. It doesn’t really matter. Except <192kbit 😁
But for listening with audiophile equipment at home it just won’t do for me.