Decent sound equipment ruined my day

[cbwolf]

So, i had the day off work yesterday and decided to bite the bullet on some new audio gear. I purchased a Asus Xonar Essence STX and Swan M50W - whilst not the best speakers out there - a big step up from my Logitech z2300s.

So as to ruining my day, after playing around with my new gear and listening to my MP3s i was pretty impressed at how much better everything sounded. Then for shits and giggles i downloaded a few songs in FLAC and that's where my day went sharply downhill.

I didn't realise how much detail i was missing in my music by having standard 128kbps mp3s with my Logitechs! The difference is night and day - i'm not being forced to replace my entire music collection in lossless formats.

It's kind of exciting - i feel like i'm rediscovering so many old songs again

[user5124]

Careful, or before you know it you'll be hooking it up to a surround receiver and sending lossless audio to it over hdmi, with a full surround speaker setup including monstrous subwoofer and kindly mainspeakers.

So good..

[hawpinghaxbag]

i find 320k mp3s pretty good if encoded from a quality source, i always get the flacs though, only triple the file size which dosnt really matter nowadays
My problem is high bitrate (think 16mbps with 1.5mbps audio) 1080p bluray rips and 160GB movie packs busting open my download limit

Those low bitrate blurry divxs with 96kbps joint stereo mp3s dont cut it anymore

[lithos]

Welcome to the slippery slope.

[Creekin]

Originally Posted by lithos

Welcome to the slippery slope.

when u start buying wooden volume knobs because they sound better..
its too late!

[loefah]

Originally Posted by Creekin

when u start buying wooden volume knobs because they sound better..
its too late!

Nope, it's when you start spending more than $50/metre on cables is when it's too late!

[Brooa]

yeah 128kb is shite. 320kb+ all the way!

[chi]

Originally Posted by Brooa

yeah 128kb is shite. 320kb+ all the way!

it really depends on the music, i find some are perfectly fine at 128 (ie the more trashier pop ones) but the ones with a lot more finer details you'll need flac/wav + multiple headphones/speakers before you can get all the sounds out of the song

[cbwolf]

Originally Posted by chi

it really depends on the music, i find some are perfectly fine at 128 (ie the more trashier pop ones) but the ones with a lot more finer details you'll need flac/wav + multiple headphones/speakers before you can get all the sounds out of the song

Agreed. Britney Spears (if you would really listen to that) would sound fine at 128.

I've been playing around and so far, my new favourite old music that i feel like i've rediscovered:

Pink Floyd
Santana
Sinatra
CCR
Phil Collins
Hendrix

Simply amazing the difference it's made.

[cbwolf]

Originally Posted by loefah

Nope, it's when you start spending more than $50/metre on cables is when it's too late!

The whole expensive cable sales pitch was dispelled years ago.

People have shown in many double blind tests, that there absolutely no audible difference between generic wire and super fancy expensive speaker wire. Even for long runs, generic 11 awg wire for $3 a metre will sound identical to the bullshit $50 a metre stuff.

[lithos]

Originally Posted by cbwolf

The whole expensive cable sales pitch was dispelled years ago.

People have shown in many double blind tests, that there absolutely no audible difference between generic wire and super fancy expensive speaker wire. Even for long runs, generic 11 awg wire for $3 a metre will sound identical to the bullshit $50 a metre stuff.

Yeah, but then what would Stereophile do all day?

[dakiller]

On another forum, when newbies join and discover real HiFi the custom reply is -

Welcome, and sorry about your wallet.

The only problem is the BS on both sides of the equipment and blind test arguments, stay away from them and just enjoy the music and the fidelity.

[TERRA Operative]

Originally Posted by lithos

Yeah, but then what would Stereophile do all day?

They paint the edges of their SACD's green...

[tr1cky271]

Originally Posted by cbwolf

I've been playing around and so far, my new favourite old music that i feel like i've rediscovered:

Pink Floyd
Santana
Sinatra
CCR
Phil Collins
Hendrix

Simply amazing the difference it's made.

What I don't understand is that all these artists would have recorded on reel to reel 8 track and the like. Pro Tools and FLAC format wasn't around back then.

[lithos]

Originally Posted by TERRA Operative

They paint the edges of their SACD's green...

That's for Redbook CDs.

You need purple for SACDs. Different laser, you know?