Lossless & HD music - For some an ear opening experience

[ksoze]

Have been venturing into more lossless music when I picked up a new set of speakers for the Mac. It became clear to my ears that listening to compressed MP3's lost something when listened to on a higher quality speaker & DSP system (Bowers & Wilkins MM1). There are some fantastic recordings at sites like hdtracks.com and others, which also offer low res samples for comparison. The debate rages on however on whether one can actually hear the difference between a 256K MP3 file and a FLAC or other lossless example.

For me, I continue to import my CD's in lossless and finding some great examples of uncompressed songs elsewhere which seem to have new life when played on a good set of speakers and in their least compressed version. There are also some excellent remasters which can breath new life into some recordings - the Tears for Fears Ultimate Collection being an example (32-Bit remastered by Studio Hilversum).

The debate however rages on: http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/13/03/22/178213/can-you-really-hear-the-difference-between-lossless-lossy-audio

[PoliticAverse]

1. Unless you do double-blind A-B tests it is very easy to fool yourself. n/t