Recent comments in /f/headphones

DryRaspberry4114 t1_jcl39bx wrote

Reply to comment by TheOne92 in Difference between Spotify and Qobuz on 320kbps by TheOne92

The thing is you didn’t actually hear the difference because windows converted everything to the same bit resolution and therefore it’s accurate that you couldn’t hear the different qualities because there were none! I’m positive anyone including you can hear the difference between a highres file in exclusive mode running every decoder from a dac and the typical 44hz from windows

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stu556 t1_jcko5tu wrote

Reply to comment by trunks56 in Replacing my Beats Studio 3 Wireless for AKG K371 Wired. What should I expect? by trunks56

one thing to keep in mind when ripping CDs is the compression levels that the engineers used when mastering the original recordings for CD releases

for the majority of the CDs' popularity (90s - 2010s), CD mixes (and the corresponding digital releases later) tended to be mixed st very high volumes and compression levels leading to what was literally called the "Loudness War"

basically, the songs on many CD releases will peak really easily and sound pretty distorted, especially with even decent audio setups (you may have noticed this already)

a good place to check if a CD release was affected by this madtering methodology is the Loudness War database

interestingly, vinyl releases are often mastered separately, so the vinyl releases and subsequent digital rips will not have this problem, sounding totally different

(this is not true for vinyl releases that are based off of the CD releases, which happens if the vinyl release is made way after the original album release)

A good example is when you compare the vinyl releases of The White Stripes' Icky Thump (2007) with the CD releases, the difference in the peaking and distortion is very clear (and this is considering Jack White's preference for lofi recording methods already)

edit: nowadays this is not much of a problem since streaming services like spotify or apple music use volume normalization to sidestep this problem somewhat

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E_Pev63 OP t1_jck8ag1 wrote

Reply to comment by klogg4 in HD660S cable swap question by E_Pev63

While one pin is larger than the other, the difference is minuscule so it really doesn’t take much “force” at all. Took a lot more to remove the original cable tbh

Guess I would’ve benefitted from further idiot proofing like different shaped bases at the pins or color coding lol. I’m sure I’m in the very small minority tho

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TheOne92 OP t1_jck16ve wrote

Reply to comment by DryRaspberry4114 in Difference between Spotify and Qobuz on 320kbps by TheOne92

I compared the different sound qualities on Qobuz's Webplayer, which doesn't have the output device options as the desktop app does, so idk about Wasapi Exclusive mode. Though i switched between MP3 320kbps, CD and High Res quality a lot and i simply couldn't hear a noticeable difference, and that's normal. When you read up stuff online on this topic, the vast majority of people won't be able to tell a difference. After that i just compared 320kbps Qobuz/Spotify and after having disabled the "normalize volume" setting on spotify it was pretty much the same on both platforms. I'm talking about casual listeners here. If you're in a studio environment, mixing/mastering, using the most high-end quality equipment etc. ofc you will hear a difference and it will be worth it. I didn't though, so i personally won't bother with Qobuz anymore and just stick to Spotify.

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