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  1. Originally posted by yeah:[..]

    Okay then. To save you some nerves, I'll just refrain from posting more stuff. I couldn't sleep if I drove you crazy.


    I guessed so!

    Nah, it was just an awful moment when I was looking for an speciphic track and I suddenly realized that almost 50% of my collection consists of U2-xxxxxx-xxxx-track_08.flac files which are hardly undistinguible from each other if you don't have the txt files with you - or an incredible brain to remember which track is which. I couldn't say if (...)track_08.flac is Stay or Vertigo unless I open them both - and that obviously sucks. And seriously, once I'm in the bootleg folder in my computer, I really DO know which show and city I'm listening to. There's no need to attach that info to all the filenames. I doubt that anyone has their albums ripped (to flac, mp3 or whatever) like this:

    U2_-_War_-_1983_-_track01.flac
    U2_-_War_-_1983_-_track02.flac
    U2_-_War_-_1983_-_track03.flac
    etc

    And not even:

    U2_-_War_-_1983_-_01_-_Sunday_Bloody_Sunday.flac
    U2_-_War_-_1983_-_02_-_New_Year's_Day.flac
    etc

    I bet that 99'999(...)% percent of the people has their albums named "01 - Sunday Bloody Sunday.flac", etc. Then why not doing it with the bootlegs also? I just don't get it.
  3. I personally always get lossless for archival purposes if available, while I encode to MP3 V0 for my personal consumption (mostly iTunes music library).

    Reasoning: while mp3 is good enough, I like having a lossless “master” copy, that can allow me to rencode at a different quality if I need them or new technologies become available.
  4. But I wonder how these samples reach one's ears... There is a difference between a stand-alone CD player (with like oversampling) and a (standard) computer soundcard...just sayin' (Nevermind the smartphone )

    Anyway, there is a difference between plain mp3 compression (like Lame - which is basically a smart file compression, in the sense of making things smaller), and compression of sound, which, ironically, aims in making the sound bigger. Usually the trouble begins when those two forms of compression are put together. That's when you start to hear unwanted sounds. Like for instance modern (digital) radio - or the Apollo broadcast SiriusXM webstream...

    Granted, too much audio compression is not nice for the ears either (the "Loudness Wars" ), and ancient mp3 (file) compressing techniques are horrible either.

    But, to me, (modern) mp3's are perfect for iPod and car usb-sticks - if indeed made straight from lossless.

    However, nothing beats a (well preserved & cleaned) vinyl record, played on decent record player connected to an OK amplifier and nicely balanced loudspeakers
    - That is just subjective until you hear it...
  5. Hi-res audio files with a proper player/amplifier/loudspeakers can make you hear some sounds that you never heard before too. (I got a vinyl turntable too and also sounds good, "love is blindness" for example)
  6. I got 4 using a pair of decent (for the average consumer) £35 bluetooth earphones, and for me the last 2 were by far the hardest - the first four all had a couple of things to look out for and teeny idiosyncrasies to notice but the Jay Z track was just all one volume, one tone, nothing distinctive really, although I picked the middle-quality track, and the Coldplay track I really had no idea and guessed and it was the worst one lol, but the point is it took 25 minutes and multiple extremely close listenings of all 3 versions of all the tracks so... make up your mind whether you think it's worth it after doing it
  7. With Lossless you'll at least have the chance to listen to the audio as the artist intended it..

    Of course that final CD Master is the result of a a lossy, compressed, distorted chain of processing which would be called "production" (or in U2's case, Pop)..

    I've tried pulling apart some Pop songs with various tools and it's kind of amazing what kind of audio is hidden in some of them, in terms of multiple drum tracks, background vocals etc..