Japanese iTunes Store Enhancements: iTunes Plus, 3G Downloads, Ringtones, Complete My Album

[milo]

The lossy compression just destroys too much of the original information.

From earlier in the thread, Apple has posted some audio tools for downloade. One is a plugin that allows doing comparisons between source material and how it sounds after their lossy encoding. It includes an ABX test, I'd bet you don't hear the difference nearly as well as you think you do.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/

I personally like to use 88.2 because it's an even multiple of the CD spec so you don't run into dither issues.

A common misconception, with a sample rate converter that's designed properly it upsamples so there's no difference between converting from 96 or from 88.2. The "even multiple" thing makes no difference at all.

 

[petsounds]

From earlier in the thread, Apple has posted some audio tools for downloade. One is a plugin that allows doing comparisons between source material and how it sounds after their lossy encoding. It includes an ABX test, I'd bet you don't hear the difference nearly as well as you think you do.

Well, you'd probably the lose the bet. I've done double-blind tests before with 24-bit lossless files and compressed audio files. I can tell. Yes, if you're talking about 16/44.1 lossless vs. 256 AACs or 320 mp3s, it's much harder. But 24/96 lossless? Very easy.

A common misconception, with a sample rate converter that's designed properly it upsamples so there's no difference between converting from 96 or from 88.2. The "even multiple" thing makes no difference at all.

There are certainly two camps of thought on this within the pro audio field. There are some big name engineers who think it absolutely makes a difference. I don't really want to get into that discussion here, I've seen too many threads on this on gearslutz already. As for me I err on the side of caution. Plus, 88.2 takes up less disk space and you can't hear a difference between 88.2 and 96, so it's a win either way.

 

[milo]

Well, you'd probably the lose the bet.

So go for it, it's a free download.