AVRant #47: Toshiba, Headphones, Test Discs
J’s back and we’ve got a lot of questions… don’t worry, we’ll get to you soon. Toshiba’s plans post HD DVD is discussed. Upscaling DVD players? Downloadable content? What the heck is going on here? Jarret asks great questions about 1.0 systems and bitrates. Jarret – check out this link. It looked a little weird just now but hopefully they get the page worked out soon. The information is all really good. If you can’t hear the difference between these bitrates, it’s your gear. J and Tom talk about some headphone recommendations. Tom and J (with input from Clint and Gene) list a few of their favorite test albums. Thanks for listening and don’t forget it’s the beginning of the month so vote for us at Podcast Alley.
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I personally use my headphones in the office, on public transportation and for travel. So it would be great to see Audioholics do some more reviews of IEM. Ones that fall in the $20-$100 price range that you mentioned in the podcast, $350 is just to steep for me. I have been looking at the Shure SE 110 or SE 210 due to the foam ear pieces that, from what I understand, should provide better comfort and isolation than the typical silicone ear pieces.
For over-the-ear cans I have read a lot of great things about the Grado SR80.
At this time I’m using Sennheiser HD280pros, usually with my PC (iTunes, Hercules Fortissimo III) or iPod Classic. I’ve been listening for differences on some of my albums ripped to AAC 128 v. 320 or 256. I can occasionally notice differences, and I did notice some differences between the wav and 128 mp3 files on that site.
Thanks for answering my questions.
For a great pair of relatively inexpensive headphones I recommend the Sony MDR-7506 or the Sony MDR-V6 as it is the same headphone, but the non-pro model so it is slightly cheaper. These headphones are extremely linear and thusy can be EQed to virtually any desired response. Also, they have extremely high build quality.
Also, another reason rarely mentioned of why many don’t notice the difference between MP3s and lossless tracks is due to the compression currently used in the industry. If you start with a poorly mastered CD and then rip it to a 128kbps mp3 there might be minimal to no differences in sound quality as it already sounded bad. Do the same with a high quality album like a typical Mapleshade release and it will be a different story (especially if you can get over the annoying tape hiss).
I almost got the MDR-V6s, but found a better deal on the Sennheisers.
When listening to speakers recently, I did find an attention to the “tape hiss” that I only barely noticed before.
Great comments and suggestions all. Jarret, glad you liked the link and like avaserfi said, the quality of the initial recording may play a huge factor in whether you are hearing a difference. For a lot of people (and probably a lot of music) 128 isn’t that bad. You guys keep those questions coming and we’ll keep answering them.
I also noticed that it was at times hard to tell the difference between lossless and 128 kbps AAC. Like avaserfi mentioned, so many records sound like crap today – they are so compressed – that it almost doesn’t matter….
If you really want to stick it to the man (mp3, m4a, wma, etc…) why not just make sure everything on your computer is under the Gnu Public License, leave Windows behind and pickup a copy of Fedora(Linux), which has native support for ogg, not mp3.
Thanks for the test disk info. If you could plaster up the list in here that would be stupendous. I typed out some of it and bought the disks today.
Mark, LMAO!! That’s a really nice phone message at the end of the podcast. So awesome! I bet you got some Pear Cables, didn’t you. Good choice!! *still laughing*
Just wanted to say thanks for the response and the poll.
Sorry about posting that in the wrong thread, I’m not used to the podcasts coming out twice a week yet so I thought I was only one behind (means more to look forward to this afternoon).
LOL are you serious Guberman!?? LOL and Mark Great purchase! There is notting better thatn $24,100 AV cables man!! LOL!!! oh man LOL!!!