switching to wav

[heuristics]

Hey all,
I'm thinking about buying only wav music files from now on instead of 320s. Just a few questions perhaps people could help me out with?
-is it worth the extra cost?
-will there be any audible difference? (i will be playing on small to medium sized systems)
-some people say they can tell the difference, others say a well encoded 320 sounds the same as a wav
-will mixing a 320 with a wav file in a set have an audible change in sound?

cheers

[icedsushi]

I've been buying .wav when possible for years (or buy a CD when I go to a show), I convert it to Apple Lossless. It's worth it for me, I can hear a difference from 128 aac. I can only hear a small difference from 256 aac to .wav, but maybe that could be placebo. Maybe I wouldn't be able to point out the 256 in a blind test, but I'm sure the 128, I could.

I never downloaded a 320 mp3 but it's about the same as a 256 aac. I don't think you'd be missing a whole lot. But once you get above that level & go to .wav I think the main advantage is future-proofing the quality of your music collection. I'd rather spend more on the .wav now then consider repurchasing in a few years as hard drive capacity continues to get cheaper & lossy formats become less necessary. You already don't see as many of the 128 downloads like you used to. Who knows, maybe in 10 years, the consumer standard will be back up to CD quality.

I use lossless compression after I buy the .wav & then store the .wav on a backup drive by themselves. But I'm not sure I really even need to be keeping all those original .wav downloads somewhere off my main HD. Isn't there an easy way to convert Apple Lossless or FLAC file back to a .wav without degrading it?

[Vios]

-is it worth the extra cost?

This is a person to person, case by case thing.

-will there be any audible difference? (i will be playing on small to medium sized systems)

I can clearly hear the difference between a 320bps mp3 and WAV on my studio monitors and on my headphones. The WAV files sound better.

However I can't really hear the difference on a club system or on cheap headphones. If I A/B back and forth enough I can tell there's a difference, but one doesn't sound better than the other on these systems.

-will mixing a 320 with a wav file in a set have an audible change in sound?

No, not really.

[Tone Deft]

will there be any audible difference? (i will be playing on small to medium sized systems)
-some people say they can tell the difference, others say a well encoded 320 sounds the same as a wav
-will mixing a 320 with a wav file in a set have an audible change in sound?

if you're getting PAID to play and you're too lazy to figure out if YOU can tell the difference you're ripping people off.

do some work.

of course there's a difference! does it matter? go find out.

[ikeaboy]

-is it worth the extra cost?

This is a person to person, case by case thing.

-will there be any audible difference? (i will be playing on small to medium sized systems)

I can clearly hear the difference between a 320bps mp3 and WAV on my studio monitors and on my headphones. The WAV files sound better.

However I can't really hear the difference on a club system or on cheap headphones. If I A/B back and forth enough I can tell there's a difference, but one doesn't sound better than the other on these systems.

-will mixing a 320 with a wav file in a set have an audible change in sound?

No, not really.

That pretty much sums it up for me 320 is fine until your attention is drawn to it somehow. Never play anything less than 320 or 256vbr on a sound system of you want the quality to stand up.

[Alfonso Muchacho]

Have you ever stood in a club and thought "That DJ is playing a 320 not a wav"?
If you have you probably need to lighten up a little.

[Tone Deft]

Have you ever stood in a club and thought "That DJ is playing a 320 not a wav"?
If you have you probably need to lighten up a little.

OP - when you get a chance, when there's few people in the club, play what you fear might be a kinda poor quality song. go onto the floor and listen. then go back to Live and fade into the same song with a .wav and go listen.

you have a GREAT opportunity to learn for yourself, dew eet!!

there was a user up in here called Hambone1 that was a big advocate of going out onto the floor and listening. he'd even mix from the floor IIRC to hear what was going on.