An Audiophile Use AAC file? Options

[Antigen]

Hi to all,

I think that here there is some audiophile...

Do you use AAC file on your HIFI or only lossless (FLAC/ALAC) or CD Audio?

Actually i'm trying to make a good ABX and I admit... I can't find difference with the MP3/AAC file and CD... I don't find differences.


What is your experience?

Do you use AAC file on a 1.000 dollars HiFi system or you will prefer FLAC?

Thanks

[SHiV]

Hi guys !! I am usually a lurker here, but this time I want to let you know my experience.

First of all, I'm not that kind of audiophile person.. let's say just enthusiatic: I enjoy music when it sounds good. That's all.
I've got a pretty expensive equipment, I mean.. not "very" expensive, but more than usual: amplifier + cd reader + acoustic speakers = about 850 euros.
For those interested the system it's a Denon, while the speakers came from Chario: of course, both of them generally speaking receive very goods rate.

I can't do properly an ABX test, since I'm missing a DAC, then the capability to use foobar along with the Hi-Fi..
Despite of this I tried to look for differences between lossy and lossless.
When you know what you are hearing you are encouraged to see differences.. well, I have to say I'm not able to hear any minimal difference between mp3 / aac over 160 kbs and waves.
In many cases even 128 kbs aac are not detectable.
I observed the same with a pretty decent headphone (Sennheiser HD 448, about 100 euros).

My equipment is maybe not the best, or I'm almost deaf..

Just to complete: it's quite easy to point out a difference when the same file sounds through an ipod connected via dock the line out, or directly by the CD player for example.. that's a good indication of the fact the the DACs are quite different, and in this case the one of my CD player is out-performing the one of ipod nano.

I'm quite confused as well reading some of yours ABX here: I found them unuseful without knowing which equipment was used.

I really do not understand why people are so strict when speaking about audio.
Of course spectras are different.. but as far as I know no one is complaing when watching JPGs instead of TIFF.
And I can bet for all of you the eye is better then the ear. Perhaps I'm wrong ?

Anyway.. I buy CDs.. why ? Because they are now actually cheaper.. and I can convert them in the format I prefer.
Otherwise, I'm convincing myself I've nothing against compressed music: probably sounds better than what I will ever able to catch.

Audiophiles as well claimg "yes I am able to ABX .." state differences are minimal, use strange adjectives to justify their claims.. and admit there's nothing wrong with compressed files.. they only sound marginally different (but not "bad" or "wrong"), and they want to stick to the original signal as much as possible since the word "hi-fi" is what it means: high-fidelity.

Bye

This post has been edited by SHiV: Feb 13 2012, 21:38

[Ron Jones]

I really do not understand why people are so strict when speaking about audio.

Audio is a science. Why not be strict when speaking about it?