When at home I listen to all stereo music on my computer through my surround system using Neo:6 through my receiver. As I've seen mentioned numerous times on these forums, since Neo:6 and Dolby Pro-Logic II are post-processing and matrix a stereo source out to more speakers than the original source audio was designed for, it's doing something that lossy codecs such as LAME MP3 and Vorbis weren't exactly designed for either. Because of this I understand from reading various threads on HA and my own listening that more artifacts will be noticable in DPL2/Neo6 playback of lossy codecs even at bitrates that are otherwise near-transparent when played in normal 2-channel stereo. Because of this, I'd be interested to know if there's been any listening tests done for lossy codecs playing back stereo sources through DPL2 or Neo:6, to get a better idea of how different lossy encoders perform at certain bitrates for this type of listening. I did some searching and unfortunately couldn't find any (which didn't really surprise me), so hence this post. I'd also be curious about how different settings such as joint stereo in LAME MP3 relate to this as well, since I've seen it mentioned more than a few times from others on these forums that joint stereo doesn't perform as well for DPL2/Neo6 listening, and from my own listening I'd have to agree, but I'd be curious to see more research/testing on that, if any has existed up to now. Thanks in advance for any information.


Edit: Grammar.

Nothing? Given the lack of response thus far I thought I'd amend this slightly. Basically I've started considering going lossless (something I had never really considered before) because I've gradually become more aware of how my lossy files aren't sounding as transparent in my listening method (Neo:6 with EQing) as they would for normal stereo listening with little to no post-processing, which has altered my perception about the virtues of lossy formats if their transparency is so subjective. The thing is I did the math though and it's more than a bit daunting how much space my CDs would take up on my hard drives in FLAC files compared to the 192 kbps Ogg files they're in now (as it is they're taking up about 45 gigs). Not to mention the long process of re-encoding everything.. yet again. Granted if I do finally go lossless, I do realize it'd probably be the last time I'd ever have to encode my CD collection for.. well hopefully at least awhile (I'm long overdo for a hard drive crash wiping out my files). ;p And I do like the benefit of lossless where if I did ever want to change to a different lossless format, I could simply transcode and lose no quality. But given the huge jump in space and the long encoding process, I can't help but wonder if it'd be too much for an insignificant improvement in quality, or the equivalent of someone upgrading from CDs to DVD-A or SACD for the "fuzzy feeling" of knowing they're listening to something very close to the original master even if odds are they can't hear the difference between it and the CD version (minus the surround aspect). Which is why I'd be interested in seeing any research/listening tests done for lossy codecs on DPL2/Neo:6 systems, to better consider all this. Well, thanks in advance for any help, and this will be the last time I'll "bump" this thread. ;p If it goes silent still, I'll just come up with something on my own I'm sure. I realize that a lot of you here on these forums are "purists" and only listen to audio in the number of channels it's recorded in with little to no post-processing and so forth, not to mention I could imagine conducting a listening test in DPL2 or Neo:6 being a logistical nightmare just keeping everything standardized if not completely scientific, so I'm far from indignant about any lack of response to this. Thanks again.


Edit: Grammar.

There have been reports of problems, some are in the faq:

- mp3 --presets [distortions with dpl]

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=ST&f=15&t=4639

- mpc [distorsions with dpl] use >Q5 setting or --ms 15

- mpc [imaging problems heard by Xerophase and Pio2001 at Q5 / 6]

- vorbis -q4 / 5 [distortions with stereo expander dsp]

I would love to test but I don't have the equip for DPL2. You could try hybrid lossy compression like Dualstream or Wavpack at around 4:1 ratio. This way you can burn a 1:1 backup to DVD or an offline drive and use the much smaller lossy file for listening.