I'm currently listening to a playlist that comprises of the MP3 version of THP digital album, as well as the FLAC version sent out on August 12. I'm shuffling it so I won't know what's coming, and honestly I can't tell the difference. I've heard songs twice, and neither stood out to me as being better quality, I couldn't ID which was an MP3 and which was FLAC. I'm using Audio-Technica Headphones plugged directly into my computer, playing off of VLC media player. What do you guys think? Can you hear a difference? I'd love to hear from some people who really know about compression and can explain why there might be/might not be a difference and such.
I'm no sound quality expert, but I got a FLAC version of THP a while back and I didn't really see much of a spike in audio quality over the standard 320 Kbps Mp3 version. All I noticed was the percussion was slightly more audible. I think audiophiles greatly overestimate the ability of FLAC encoding to solve compression issues. Short of hearing the music recreated in first person, you're not really going to get the full sonic range. My 2 cents.
I didn't notice much differences for THP. But I recently just downloaded Razor Red Noise's single Night in FLAC, and it sounded a lot better then the MP3 version. The guitars especially sounded clearer and more powerful.
FLAC to 320 difference is very little, and even then you need to have good hearing to be able to correctly identify the clearer sounds. Most of the time the FLAC-rips won't be 1411, they'll be in the 900-1100 range, for maximum clarity you should rip them with a good program.
they say you can only hear above a certain spectrum, and 320 does a good job. But our quality has been degraded so bad over the years, people rip FLAC to restore that loss of quality. You may not hear the difference on a low range set of headphones. You need a mid-range or high range set of headphones or great stereo system, and bump it up. The distortion will be a lot lower, bass will be crisp, guitars less distorted as well and clarity is up there. But in reality on a pair of earbuds, you may not notice much of a difference. I just enjoy flac because I can make out little sounds in music. Like I've had a bad Hybrid Theory rip and Thousand Suns rip... I got an iTunes version 256aac which is supposed to be above 320kbps mp3, and damn.. it sounded incredible. There were so many things I could make out in WFTE that I've never heard before.
As you reach higher bitrates of MP3, it'll become exponentially more difficult to make out the difference. The difference I heard when I listened to a comparison of the two types (I have the same headphones as you) was less muddy instruments in FLAC, and a much better soundstage. In other words, it felt like the instruments weren't coming out of the same place, and each instrument felt unique. We also need to remember there is an intermediate piece of hardware in your laptop: the sound card. Even if you have amazing headphones and FLAC type song, the sound card is still converting the digital output of your audio player to an analog signal that your headphones use. This conversion can have it's own losses, so you may notice gains if you upgrade your sound card.
Not Shinoda though. Shinoda wants you to listen to his stuff with 7 thousand dollar sound stystems, with bitrates higher than FLAC. Y'know, 'cause Linkin Park is just that delicate.
Um, dude, Shinoda wants you to use $7K sound systems = Shinoda wants you to be rich = Shinoda wants to end world poverty. Have some respect.
320k sounds extremely close to FLAC but if you've listened to FLACs long enough, you would find something's missing in the MP3s, can't describe what it is though. Even impossible to tell the difference when you're on busy streets.
320kpbs always was good enough for me. People say that 320kpbs and FLAC are very similar and a lot of people can't even tell the difference. Actually, a lot of my mp3's are in iTunes Plus, which I enjoy.