a brief rant concerning audiophiles because the general moaning around the internet about Radiohead’s In Rainbows being encoded at 160 kbps annoys me
Here’s a general rule of thumb: If you happen to read the words “…I’m a bit of an audiophile…” anywhere on the internet, disregard whatever else is written around those words. The surrounding words will most likely be some sort of delusional nonsense about bit rates, signal to noise ratio, standing waves, and “sense of depth”. You will probably even see the word “tinny”, maybe even more than once, and it will be used with absolute sincerity. The “high end” will sound “tinny”, and maybe even “distorted”.
“There! Can’t you hear that? Right there in the hi-hat!”
No. I can’t. Neither can you. You’re an idiot. This is not wine tasting.
I of course write all of this while listening to music on a set of $99 noise reduction sound isolating in-ear headphones with a gold plated stereo mini-jack connector. The music coming from my ear-buds is both “crisp” and “full”. It sounds “nice”.
related:
Do Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off?
Asch conformity experiments
