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Poll

MP3

~100 kbps or less
[ 10 ] (2.1%)
~130 kbps
[ 32 ] (6.7%)
~145 kbps
[ 12 ] (2.5%)
~160 kbps
[ 28 ] (5.8%)
~180 kbps
[ 45 ] (9.4%)
~200 kbps
[ 66 ] (13.8%)
~225 kbps
[ 38 ] (7.9%)
~260 kbps
[ 60 ] (12.5%)
320 kbps
[ 62 ] (12.9%)
I don't encode to MP3
[ 127 ] (26.5%)

Total Members Voted: 520

Topic: What bitrate do you use? (2011) (Read 77198 times) previous topic - next topic
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What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #25
Musepack SV8  Standard Bitrate when used in conjunction with EAC ver 1.0 beta 2

then copy files across to various iPod 5th Gen players with Rockbox ver 3.8.1 which
has support for Musepack SV8

also very happy with VLC Media Player on various Windows laptops churning out SV8
encoded files via various headphones, speakers etc around work and home :-)



What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #27
I switched computing platforms from Windows to Mac OS X earlier this year so my lossy encoding preferences changed.  Before I would rely on Nero AAC at -q0.45 and ALAC for my archives.  The later hasn't changed but I now use QuickTime AAC at 160kbps true VBR as it is built right into the OS and XLD can harness that rather easily.  I encode at 128kbps VBR_constrained with iTunes AAC for uploading to my Amazon cloud account.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #28
Why Musepack: still appears have the fastest decode speed of lossy formats according to my tests using foo_bench.dll; psy-model/VBR appears to perform well (mpcbits.exe showed bitrates at --standard between 3kbps to over 1000kbps); APE tags

I was requested to upload MPCbits.exe for another HA user, and having found the ancient binary I decided to re-examine my claim. It turns out my above statement is not entirely correct. Unable to edit my previous post, I wanted to clarify that huge bitrates reported by MPCbits.exe are usually one or two frames, and usually at the beginning of the audio file. This appears to be a necessary design of the gapless function (forgot to add that in my list of features  ) and usually appears when the audio is at the very start of the track.

An example of a song that has 1000+ bits frame at the beginning is off Metallica's Ride The Lightning, track 06 (note: my pressing is very early, so I'll mention the RG reported -4.01dB for the track on my CD). I specifically used Musepack version 1.1.6 with no commandline arguments (-q5).
"Something bothering you, Mister Spock?"

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #29
Looking at the results of this and a previous poll for a public AAC test, it seems that people use >130-kbps bitrates much more often than say <100-kbps or so. Which leads me to conclude that - if there will ever be another high-bitrate test - people would be more interested in testing 130 kbps than lower bitrates. Correct?

Chris
If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #30
Looking at the results of this and a previous poll for a public AAC test, it seems that people use >130-kbps bitrates much more often than say <100-kbps or so. Which leads me to conclude that - if there will ever be another high-bitrate test - people would be more interested in testing 130 kbps than lower bitrates. Correct?

While i can not pick -v4 from the original, i encode to v2, because i like to play music with friends, and i rather be safe than sorry, so yes, for me 130 is more interesting than 100.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #31
Looking at the results of this and a previous poll for a public AAC test, it seems that people use >130-kbps bitrates much more often than say <100-kbps or so. Which leads me to conclude that - if there will ever be another high-bitrate test - people would be more interested in testing 130 kbps than lower bitrates. Correct?

Chris

I'm also interested in 128 kbps public test.
Although it makes sense to conduct it first at 96kbps.
As for me when I can't hear the artifact at high bitrates I will go to lower bitrate to figure out the nature of it and then get back to spot it at previous high bitrate.

Now the listeners who have participated in previous 64 kbps test are trained to perform new one at 96 kbps. Jumping to 128 kbps will be too abrupt.
And then we will see.

Just my thoughts.

While i can not pick -v4

That means that you would be able to provide useful results if there would be -V 5 (130 kbps)  test and even lower bitrate for AAC, Vorbis, Opus.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #32
Just a thought on the choices. 
Though the results don't show a lot down there I would have expected people choosing <130 kb/s would have more reason to make a conscious choice and more significant difference in quality and space driving that choice compared to choosing between, say, 200 and 225 kb/s.  But  "100 and less"  is the only choice in that range.

If I'm encoding for the portable, generally vorbis in the q0 through q3 range depending on how much I like the piece. 
For just talk, especially audio books that often run 6 hours, I encode at 10-20 kb/s in speex. 
Music on the PC, mostly vorbis or mpc in the 190 range.
Mp3 is mostly things I get already encoded in the 180-256 range from emusic, some music podcasts, etc.



What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #33
I just started using MPC extreme (~200 kbps) on my Rockboxed Sansa Clip+ (it's skipped by the annoying OF indexer as a bonus). I was previously using Vorbis q6 on it and VBR MP3 around 220kbps (I guess it was V2) on my Samsung mobile phone. I also keep everything in FLAC on a PC.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #34
~260, although I only use lossy on my underused DAP. . .
FLAC -> JDS Labs ODAC/O2 -> Sennheiser HD 650 (equalized)

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #35
On my PC, where storage is unbelievably cheap, I refuse to settle for anything other than lossless, just for the sake of having guaranteed "perfect" archival quality.  I know it's overkill, but when a terabyte of storage can be had for $60, I think overkill is justified.  Furthermore, having lossless files on my PC simplifies transcoding if I change my mind about what I want on my portable.  Within the lossless domain, I use FLAC because it's the best supported. 

On portable equipment, where storage is an order of magnitude more scarce, I use Vorbis -q2.  When encoded from the FLACs on my PC, I find it near transparent.  I can ABX some stuff but the arifacts are extremely small nitpicks and not at all annoying and there's plenty more that I can't ABX.  Vorbis -q2 is roughly 96 kbps and lets me fit tons of stuff on my cheap yet very good 4GB Sansa Fuze and Clip.  I don't care about "archival quality" or "safety factors" here because I have the FLACs on my PC. 

I know that my encoding preferences sound like two extremes, but in my experience once you get to "near transparent", increasing the bitrate of lossy compression further gets you to "completely transparent" in a very slow, asymptotic manner, if at all.  Even though I can't ABX most stuff at -q2 in Vorbis, there's one killer sample that I've successfully ABX'd at -q7 (nominal bitrate 224 kbps).  Therefore, I tend to believe in lossless, which is guaranteed transparent, when space is cheap and relatively low "near transparent" bitrates when space is at a premium.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #36
I'm using MP3 for my "high-end" equipament, headphones (in case, SONY MDR-V900HD) of my pc, and aac to my mobile phone with cheap phones, due to compatibility with "tagged" covers isn't MP3, replaced with aac (Nero).
Sorry for my bad english.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #37
LAME 3.98 -v5 or QuickTime AAC q65 (which usually ends up at about ~120 kbps for my collection). I also have the original FLACs of my music on my main computer, but for some reason I prefer listening to the lossy rips.

I try to walk the line between file size and quality, and those bitrates are perfect for that. I still have a rockboxed Sansa e260, but I also have a new 8 GB iPod touch. Neither have all that much space, and when I'm listening to my portable player on the bus/subway, I wouldn't be able to hear low bitrate artifacts anyway. (But I'm not a very discerning listener compared to many people here -- LAME -v4 sounds transparent to me.) I think higher bitrates would also consume too much battery for my liking.

I use mp3 for universal compatibility, and AAC on my iPod. I would have completely swiched to AAC by now, but it's not as efficient to decode, i.e. it uses more battery on rockbox devices.

I prowled through these forums about codec information, and these two links: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....60117&st=50 and http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=66949 told me that low bitrate QuickTime AAC was actually incredibly good.

I feel like lame mp3 or aac have reached their peak in quality at the bitrates I encode at, for at least a year now, and that makes me relieved. I've been replacing my older mp3 collection recently (like 128kbps mp3s from ten years ago; they sound too strange and lo-fi for me now). I'm confident I'll be able to preserve my current collection without having to re-rip everything in the future.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #38
FLAC w/cue sheets for archival/storage purposes.

ALAC for most music on my iPod Touch 64 Gb. (Probably not entirely necessary, but I don't care.) AAC VBR @256 Kbps for some.

HE-AAC @ 64 Kbps (usually stereo) for spoken word recordings.

(I can ABX a LAME-encoded MP3 @ 128 Kbps 100% of the time, but that's trivial. The differences I've heard in such tests were nearly negligible and I probably would not have noticed them if I wasn't "testing" something. I've never tested anything higher than that...it doesn't interest me too terribly.)
The Loudness War is over. Now it's a hopeless occupation.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #39
I don't encode to a bitrate, it's whatever -V 2 gives me.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #40
Like others I also don't encode to a bitrate.

For regular albums I have that are alright, but which I also don't listen to that often I use:
LAME -V 2

For albums I love and listen to allot, i.e.; several times each year I use:
LAME -V 0

I also have many albums archived on DVDs using FLAC.

 

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #41
I use LAME -V0, which I think puts me in the ~260kbps MP3 slot
EAC>1)fb2k>LAME3.99 -V 0 --vbr-new>WMP12 2)MAC-Extra High

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #42
I use lossless (TAK) and convert to MP3 VBR V2 for portable/car. Excluding digital purchases which are usually 320 kbps MP3.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #43
I have been using LAME 3.98.4 at -V0, which is around 256 kbps.
FLAC copies on Genuine Verbatim DVD's, although the last time I promised not to do DVD backup anymore as it is a tedious and consuming process.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #44
I use LAME 3.98 with V0. I can't tell the difference between V2-V0 and lossless even on pretty revealing headphones, yet my hearing can go up to 19kHz(and I'm 20 years old lol).

Guess that goes to show that LAME does an excellent job in my opinion.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #45
Home computer - FLAC

Portable Player - MP3 @ -V0 (245kbps)

External HD for Work - Vorbis @ q 4.0 (128kbps)


Perhaps its overkill, but I paid for the space, so why not use it?  The speakers I have with the work system really aren't that super, so vorbis works great for the stuff I want to take to work.
foobar2000, FLAC, and qAAC -V90
It just works people!

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #46
I didn't realize lossy formats were still this popular.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #47
Lossy formats are much more popular than non lossy ones.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #48
LAME v0, mostly for for PC and ipod
FLAC , mostly for home theater and ipod with Rockbox

I ripped very carefully to FLAC with dBpoweramp and then converted to mp3 with LAME.  My priorities were to never rip or transcode again, and treat disc space as cheap or unlimited.  I never conducted a robust comparison between LAME v0 and FLAC on my ipod, PC or home theater, but with crude comparisons I could not recognize or recall any differences between these formats on any playback device.  I will not rule out issues with my old Irish ears.  I find myself listening to my LAME library much more than FLAC because I spend much more time in front of my computer instead of my home theater.

What bitrate do you use? (2011)

Reply #49
FLAC all the way... On my home digital receiver.
I don't listen to music on phones or other similar devices.