[Spillages]

So, new to the audio world, have never payed attention to the different bit rates of my media. What is the noticable differences between a mp3 @ 320, vs Flacc @ 1000+ and how do you guys get your 1000+ bitrate music?

 

[Asr]

You can look for and listen to the differences yourself, no need to ask other people. If you're using a PC, download the free program Audacity to view waveform data from PCM-based files like WAV.
 
You can also encode your own MP3 and FLAC files at a bit rate or quality level of your choice, with LAME and freac, respectively.
 
To acquire an uncompressed full-length WAV file, you need to rip a track from an audio CD, which can be done with ExactAudioCopy. Try a track with lots of percussion if possible. Cymbals are usually good.
 
You can usually visually see the difference between MP3 and FLAC/WAV if you decode an MP3 file back to WAV and compare that waveform to the original uncompressed file's. Of course, you can usually hear the difference too.
 
If you're using a Mac instead of a PC, I don't know what programs to recommend.
 
Most people get high-bitrate or uncompressed music from either audio CDs or Web sites like HDTracks.com.

 

[DaveBSC]

There's also a really interesting trick to testing the differences between different compression levels of the same track - invert the phase. Anything that's the same will cancel out, but anything that's lost by the lower bitrate will be audible in the inverted lossless version.

 

[jcx]

differencing perceptual compressed files from the original may let you get an appreciation for what the codec does - but the whole point is that the codec software chooses to "toss out" the parts that are "inaudible" in the presence of the stuff that it keeps
 
so looking at, listening to the "tossed out" part in isolation tells you nothing about the "transparency" of the codec or bitrate setting
 
 
there are "killer" samples for different codecs, types of artifacts that you can find at HydrogenAudio - really the best site for audio compression discussion, info

 

[Azathoth]

I find that 320kbps CBR mp3 is sufficient for portable listening out of a Sansa Clip+. At home I prefer FLAC's encoded from CD's via Exact Audio Copy.

 

[bigshot]

When I first got into building a media server, I did a very thorough test to determine what bitrate and codec to use. i wanted a setting that worked for both portable and critical listening. I set up line level balanced A/B switching between my CD and various compressed formats. I determined that MP3 LAME 320 was acceptable, but the best was AAC 256 VBR. I rip everything to that setting and put the CDs in a closet now.