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by zcrar70 6241 days ago
Not to want to sound snobbish, but £80 headphones are kind of wasted on mp3s in any case - if you compare listening to an mp3 and the same track on CD (or in a lossless codec such as flac), you'd definitely notice the difference, and appreciate the headphones more.

This being said, I have an iAudio and, using the same headphones, the sound is noticeably better than my girlfriend's (more expensive) iPod.
2 comments
derefr 6240 days ago
Eh, I listen to live versions of things, mostly—all the quality that's going to be lost was lost before the track was even mastered, so it doesn't matter if it's compressed, really.
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ZeroGravitas 6240 days ago
Have you ever put yourself through a double-blind test on this issue?

Since the previous comment didn't just talk about mp3s in general but specifically mentioned 210Kbps VBR I think you'll find it an eye opening experience.

What is a blind ABX test? http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1629...

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=ABX

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