> Be warned, headphones have all sorts of non-linearities. > I'd argue that in general, pound for pound, decent headphones will provide more linearity and fidelity than speakers. (Obviously I mean pound sterling, although the same might be true for pound weight if your neck muscles are strong enough ... )
In support of much of what has been already said in this thread, mp3 files encoded at a decent bit-rate can sound pretty convincing through average equipment. However, FLAC versions of music with which you are familiar, played through reasonably decent equipment is significantly different (better) to my ear. I convinced myself a wee while back when, by trying to resolve a wireless networking issue by returning SlimServer to default settings, I unknowingly set FLAC files to be sent as MP3. I very quickly noticed that the life and sound-stage had been sucked from my music. It took some time to figure out why though. FLAC is also perfect as an archiving format too. You can easily transcode from FLAC to any format you choose, but once it's in MP3, it's in MP3 for good unless you want to lose even more detail. -- Fifer _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
