Heartofsaturdaynight Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 personally I wouldn't spend £1000 on a headphone amp. The Audiolab 8200CDQ is a pre amp which you connect to a power amp or multiple power amps and then to speakers. A good pre amp and power amp system will usually sound better than an integrated amp but it depends on the gear & the price. The 8200CDQ also has a CD player, headphone amp and with relevance to this thread a DAC. The price of good DAC will usually start at around £300. If you are not using a good quality DAC with HD audio then what's the point? If it was just a headphone amp £1000 would be a bit rich. Anyone interested in just a headphone amp checkout something like Musical Fidelity X-Can. You could pick one up now second hand for around £99. I guess most of this doesn't mean much to some people as they are listening to their HD audio on a basic PC with a sound card that cost about £20 (a bit like Rik Waller buying expensive running shoes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetro Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 No more appreciation? Just picking up on this thread. (...) downconverting the HD files back to 44.1/16 and burning back to CD gives a better outcome than the commercial disc - and the are moments when the differences aren't subtle. What would be the suggested format? The flac files are rather big, and I came over a suggestion that said wav files were the way to go. I'm using Audacity to 'reformat' the songs (I don't even know if that's an okay way to do it). But actually, turning them info wav files made them even bigger than they originally were (although not by much). What would you suggest to change the files into? I'm sending them over to Winamp on Android, that cannot play flac (), but I suppose it plays more 'regular' formats. I'm thinking MP3 is too harsh, or is that what the commercial CD has? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bs Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Yeah, converting to WAV from FLAC would just make the files bigger, that's what FLAC's for! Commercial CD is just 16 bit 44.1khz WAV (maximum 1411kbps)...FLAC and ALAC are lossless formats that keep the original WAV quality but save space...MP3 is 320kbps maximum so whatever you do, you're losing audio quality by converting to that format... Although taking a 24 bit 96khz file and converting it down to MP3 at all is just... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FabriPav Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 My advice (well duh) is not to compress those flacs back to MP3 at all. Even though the HD converted MP3 are still better than the CD MP3 files because they're mastered differently. The difference is not that noticeable though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetro Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Right, right, sadly I have to make them smaller in size and in another format to play on me little Android. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen_2 Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Right, right, sadly I have to make them smaller in size and in another format to play on me little Android. Â If you're going to compress them, then it doesn't really matter which codec you use (obviously given the caveat that your playback device must support it!). MP3 is probably as good as anything, because while it's anything but the most modern and efficient, it does the job and is universally supported. It isn't inherently harsh - it tends to go that way when the bitrate gets a bit too low, but then so do most of the other lossy codecs. I've never used Audacity so not sure what its encoding options are, but if you start by setting 320kbit/sec (or maybe a bit higher) fixed (rather than variable) bitrate and leave whatever else at default it should sound tidy enough. Give it a listen afterwards and if your ears are happy, that's what counts. Â Madness - 1.40, there's an odd squeak, it almost sounds like a "bckerk" of a chicken hahah. Can anyone else here that or am i just going mad?(ness) Â I hear it! Might be Matt touching the strings of the guitar? Â It doesn't seem to anything like that, as you don't hear it on the instrumental version of the song. Ergo, whatever it is, it seems to be on the vocal track. Sounds like some kind of Madness, for sure. Matt throttling a penguin, maybe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetro Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Citizen Crazed, great to read your replies as always. I chose the highest-rate mp3 I could get (320 kbps). I can't hear a difference really. The best part about it anyways is that it keeps the sound levels as it is. I'm so amazed at how well produced this album is. It's almost unbelieavable. It's not like artists promote that they "go against the loudness war" and gets media attention for it. Follow Me, for example, looks like this: It actually gets louder during the chorus. It's not that hearable, though, it just sort of gets an extra oomph when it comes, which is so delicious. I just love it. Love it! <3 These are the flac files from the HD Audio Digital Remastered ® whatever. I suspect the actual CD has less difference between the levels. I should rip them and compare them. Don't know if it has been done yet? If the producer of this album has done so well, I think he/she should go and make Absolution and BHaR again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockypra Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I wonder if Rich Costey produces this album. I'm so amazed at how blablabla... If the producer of this album has done so well, I think he/she should go and make Absolution and BHaR again. Well, someone called Muse produced it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetro Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Yeah but they always got someone with them, recording and stuff. Also, are you saying that Rich Costey produced it, but then that Muse did it themselves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareeh Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Well done Muse for reading Producing for n00bs 101 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic. Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I would love to see a video of Matt singing the real high pitch bits that go along with the guitar at the end of Survival. Must look mad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hat Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I would love to see a video of Matt singing the real high pitch bits that go along with the guitar at the end of Survival. Must look mad I doubt that it'd look that much different to all his other notes in that area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic. Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I doubt that it'd look that much different to all his other notes in that area Pffft, I just think the image of him blaring those notes out on his own in a vocal booth would look pretty bizarre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojane Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Pffft, I just think the image of him blaring those notes out on his own in a vocal booth would look pretty bizarre if you ever meet him tell him to do it in front of you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic. Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 if you ever meet him tell him to do it in front of you And I won't let him leave till he does Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojane Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 And I won't let him leave till he does too right! you could always kidnap him..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic. Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 too right! you could always kidnap him..... Now now, we're not all as craaazy as Hannah of Fabri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojane Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Now now, we're not all as craaazy as Hannah of Fabri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezul Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 https://encyclopediadramatica.se/FLAC this made me chuckle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofsaturdaynight Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 https://encyclopediadramatica.se/FLAC this made me chuckle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzthief Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I need a little help. I have my HD files of The 2nd Law on my PC and they work just fine though my sound system when played on the PC. But when I want to play them on my phone then the soundcard of the phone can't handle it and the audio gets messy and full of static. So my question is, what is the best free audio converter? So I could convert my 4000kbps FLAC files to aprox 1000kbps FLAC files. When I'm on the go and want to listen to the album then it's just impossible because I get seriously irritated by these glitches. The phone doesn't have a problem playing 1000kbps FLAC files, plays them nice and smooth with all of the detail that you can get from a smartphone. Any help would be appriecated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezul Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 I need a little help. I have my HD files of The 2nd Law on my PC and they work just fine though my sound system when played on the PC. But when I want to play them on my phone then the soundcard of the phone can't handle it and the audio gets messy and full of static. So my question is, what is the best free audio converter? So I could convert my 4000kbps FLAC files to aprox 1000kbps FLAC files. When I'm on the go and want to listen to the album then it's just impossible because I get seriously irritated by these glitches. The phone doesn't have a problem playing 1000kbps FLAC files, plays them nice and smooth with all of the detail that you can get from a smartphone. Any help would be appriecated. dbPowerAmp will convert it down to 44.1khz, 24bit. That should bring the bitrate down. The HD Audio files will still sound great at even 16bit./44khz. The reason it sounds better is because of the mastering, the higher sampling rate/bit depth are just slight bonuses in comparison imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareeh Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 May as well convert it to MP3, difference will be minimal. edit: what size can your phone take? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzthief Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 May as well convert it to MP3, difference will be minimal. edit: what size can your phone take? Well, even on the phone the FLACs are noticeably clearer than 320kbps mp3 files. What do you mean by "what size can your phone take?". It goes up to 1200kbps with clearity and from there on it gets messy quality wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FabriPav Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 How are you able to clearly hear the differences between FLACs and mp3s on the phone? The main thing about the HD Audio FLAC files, when you don't have really good equipment, is that they're mastered differently from the CD audio files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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