
Thu 28 Feb 08 @ 8:52 am
its not necessarily about 'hearing' a difference. its about the operations done on the material. for instance, you might not hear a difference between 192 and 320 file until you apply a keylock and pitch-shift it. the differences will become more apparent.
similarly, the differences will become more apparent the more you slow a track down from it's original speed.
a good analogy is this. youre driving on the highway (Rather someone is driving and you are in the passenger seat). You are staring at the dotted lines in the road. Each line segment represents a bit in the mp3 file. as you speed up, the bits are appearing more quickly. if you go fast enough, in fact the line starts to appear like one long line. when you slow down though, the lines come more slow. if this is the audio, the lines (clarity) become so far apart, you loose definition of the track and start to hear artifacts in the sound. often it can be described like a soft choppy sound.
ideally this isnt too much of a factor so the argument becomes moot. but in circumstances it applies. i listen to mp3s of any calibre but prefer 320 if i can help it. however, i refuse to spin with anything less than 320 for sake of quality.
final point. YES, you can hear the difference between 192 and 320, or even 256 and 320.... BUT, you only hear the difference when listening to very good speakers. for instance, my genelecs will show you every flaw in every track. but you will rarely hear this in a club or on headphones because the reproduction and stereo imaging is not accurate enough.