Sound Quality of leak

[rock888nwo]

Quick question (and mods feel free to move this somewhere else if you need to)...what is the quality of this leak...is it true that there are two versions out there....256 and 320....you see, the problem I have is that I want my first listen to be at the highest sound quality possible....should I wait for physical release....is there any appreciable difference between 320 and physical cd?

 

[lmixristhebest]

Any mp3 at or above 256 will sound pretty much imperceptibly different from a 320 rip or a CD. The version of NLOTH that I got is at 256 and sounds great, but when the CD comes out I'll rip it at 320, as that's what I like to do.

 

[bcrt2000]

I wonder what the source for the 320 kbps version is.

 

[chrissybaby]

I wonder what the source for the 320 kbps version is.

re-encode?

 

[Cask]

It is probably just a transcode of the 256 kbps version, as there has been no other known leak

 

[rock888nwo]

i actually have both downloaded...all of the tracks on the 320 version are 4 seconds shorter than the 256 leaked version....my itunes says the 320 tracks are encoded with mp3 to wave converter plus???

 

[thelaj]

Almost everything I read (and hear) leads me to believe 99% of people will be unable to distinguish 256k mp3 from a CD - especially with the lower quality equipment most people use. Hell, 128k probably sounds better on poor headphones/speakers as they mask the imperfections!

I encode all of my CDs with LAME 3.98 (alt-preset-fast-extreme (V0) which has a target VBR bitrate of around 240k) and I cannot tell the difference for most discs through several pairs of high quality headphones and speakers.

Having said that, if the rip is poor it won't matter how high you encode or transcode it. Since the 256k version is direct from Universal (correct?) it should be a good one.

Of course, I haven't listened to the leak as I am still trying to resist

 

[boosterjuice]

Do the 320 tracks sound any better?

 

[bram]

Do the 320 tracks sound any better?

You'll notice from the above comments that it is actually impossible for them to sound better.

 

[Danny Boy]

I bought it from Universal and my files are 256 kbps. Surely in 2009 there aren't still folks who believe they can improve the sound by reencoding at a higher bitrate.

 

[boosterjuice]

I bought it from Universal and my files are 256 kbps. Surely in 2009 there aren't still folks who believe they can improve the sound by reencoding at a higher bitrate.

I'm not a scientist

 

[Reead]

I'm not a scientist

Well, to be fair, it doesn't take a scientist to know that you can't make something out of nothing .

 

[rock888nwo]

Do the 320 tracks sound any better?

i havent listened....im hoping to hold out for physical release...i just downloaded them in case i lose my willpower....but after reading the comments above, i deleted the 320 files as each song was 4 seconds shorter

 

[edgeplaytheblue]

better than this ... you can't get it!!

 

[gweeps]

Sadly, there is still clipping in some of the tracks.

 

[gareth brown]

haha i MIGHT have read a post wrong in this thread but are people seriously going and re-encoding 256kbs MP3s to 320 and expecting them to improve?

 

[Moser]

haha i MIGHT have read a post wrong in this thread but are people seriously going and re-encoding 256kbs MP3s to 320 and expecting them to improve?

Yeh, that would make a lot of sense lol. Whenever you reencode a format into a lossy format....YOU LOSE DATA!!!!!!!

I got it at 320 kbps.