Unless the quality of file was really poor then maybe. The notes I am hearing is more important to me than the quality of the recording. Personally I just can't hear that world of difference.

I will admit to spending $55 on a pair of AKG K 81 DJ's (and very nice headphones they are), but I wouldn't call myself an audiophile as those headphones are the most expensive piece of audio equipment that I have, and I run those straight out of my laptop. But I do like to have MP3s encoded in 192 kbps or greater (lossless is also good) and won't listen to anything below 128 kbps.

Does having standards count as being an audiophile?

I guess I'm kinda on the fence with this. I love compression. I like to use the newest audio and video compression codecs because I love small files with great quality. The fact that I have archived about 4 songs in 4 types of Lame 3.97b2 compression settings just to prove the quality of the compression says to me that I'm an audiophile. Doing blind comparisions so that I can know my commandline is as good to-the-ear-quality wise as a CBR 320kpbs MP3 shows that I am anal when it comes to my audio.

Though if you notice, I'm willing to significantly compress. And most people (audiophiles) piss and moan that they can't stand compression. I only can't stand compression that I can notice. There is a difference.

When there is noticable lack of audio quality, I will comment, turn off, or just tune it out. So, I guess I am an audiophile elitist.

What I want to know is when did being an audiophile have so much to do with the manner in which you encode your audio? There is a lot more to being an audiophile than being able to tell the difference between an uncompressed WAV file and an Mp3.

That's great point. It used to be speaker quality and such, but now that seems to be the least of most peoples worries.

I find both audio compression and speaker quality to be very essential. For instance, great Mp3 encodes that I have sound great out my quality speaker system and in all headphones, but sound like ass out the MacBook Pro's speakers. Maybe iTunes is screwing up the files or something but I put alot of weight into the idea that speakers can make all the difference. Your Mp3's might sound good on your $2 headphone jack-powered computer speakers, but a decent speaker set will show them as the ass they really are.

That holds specially true for high-end headphones. Listening to a poorly encoded Mp3 on my Shure E4Gs or Etymotic ER-4Ss is a nightmare. Even my Grado SR-60s, which aren't quite as detailed, easily reveal any flaws. The high-quality DAC in my amplifier only exacerbates the problem.

A fantastic point. Audio is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain (million dollar cable freaks excluded from this argument). People go nuts worrying about how they encode their (usually horribly mastered) CDs and then play them through iBuds. Talk about screwed up priorities.

I've found the SR-60 to actually be one of the more forgiving high-end pairs of headphones I've owned. My HD-580 can put out better audio quality than even my AV-710+Pimeta can channel to them, but they're tolerable with lower grade stuff (you know it when you hear it, however). My HD-280 are flat and analytical, which leads to them being incredibly harsh on low-quality recordings. My SR-60 are great cans, and in my opinion scale up lower quality recordings better than the other two. They're the pair I listen to the least, but they're good for that use.

Quick Audio Comparo

Gladiator File #1

Gladiator File #2

Noticable quality differences?

BTW Try to ignore the filesizes :)

Haw, yeah. I recently visited a page which was selling a $3,000 power cable. At first I laughed, but then realized that people actually do buy those things. And it isn't even an interconnect or an audio cable at all; just a power cord.

Don't even get me started on poor mastering. I absolutely detest what the loudness war has done to music these days. It gets me steamed just looking at a waveform that has been compressed to hell, hard-limited, and normalized past 0dB. Why? I mean, Jesus Christ... I better stop before I break into a rant.

Huh. I've found my SR-60s to be very detailed, but then again, I haven't tried many other full-size headphones, so I don't have a frame of reference from which to make any valid comparisons. I know that I absolutely love their sound signature, and I listen to them more than any other headphone I own. I would like to get a pair of SR-225s or even RS-1s some day.

I want to say that the first file is more heavily compressed, but it's more of a feeling than anything I can hear. So in the end, no, I cannot truly tell the difference with any accuracy. Although I do know artifacting when I hear it.

I'm far from an audiophile - I guess I'm lucky that I can't hear much of a difference to a 128 CBR song compared to a VBR or 320 CBR song. Most of the mp3s on my computer are 128 CBR; I just can't see how someone would want to waste so much space on their computer for a mp3's quality (but I guess I 1) am not an audiophile and 2) wouldn't like it if my computer was full of 64 CBR mp3s, so I'm not one to talk.)

Pretty much yes.

I care how my CDs are encoded (usually EAC, Lame 97.2b -v2 --vbr-new) and sometimes I do ABX tests to see if the encoding is alright. If I had a set of super hi-fi speakers I would probably only listen to lossless, but on my system I hardly can tell the difference between lossless and -v2 VBR (with headphones I am able to on some music.. but they are exceptions and it doesn´t really bother me)

I have a pair of AKG K240S headphones though, which are pretty nonforgiving when it comes to bad compressed music. Their sound is excellent and pretty neutral, I love them. So a part of me is an audiophile, but not the elitist type that spends thousands of dollars on cables :D

Maybe everyone posting here should add what kind of audio setup they have a home or the place they're posting from. Because at least I think that most of you simply can't be audiophile because lacking a decent audio setup.
Like mentioned before, you possibly won't tell the difference between a mp3 and a lossless encoding if you're listening with cheap pc speakers or the earphones from you iPod.

My audio setup:
- Philips DVP 5505S DVD-standalone (also capable of playing SACD and DVD-audio with meridian lossless) [this one is main output for music]
- Soundblaster Live! Player 1024 with kX Project drivers [does the output when sitting in front of the pc]
- 2x BT-928 headphone amp (heavily modified, so output quality is quite decent) [one b-tech is for the philips, one is for the sb live]
- Teufel Concept E Magnum speaker set (this is a 5.1 surround set, not including a decoder) [hooked up at the philips b-tech, which does pass-through]
- Sennheiser HD570 Symphony headphone [hooked up a the sblive b-tech]
- Sennheiser RS140 wireless headphone [hooked up at the philips b-tech, second port]
- AKG K701 headphone [hooked up at philips b-tech, first port]
- iRiver iMP-550 portable CD-player-hybrid (this one gets the data from cd, ergo reads mp3-cds, cdda and also a bit of vorbis)
- Sony MDR-EX 81 SLB in-ear-phone [hooked up at iMP-550, the original iRiver headphone broke some time ago, defect membrane]

Thinking about building:
- DIY PIMETA headphone amplifier

And I vote for 'no' (because I don't own a STAX *g*)

cyay
liquid

I have my laptop computer hooked up to a HeadRoom Total Bithead DAC/Amplifier, a pair of Grado SR-60 headphones, a pair of Shure E4G IEMs, and a pair of Etymotic Research ER-4S IEMs. What I want to get in the near future is a Meier Corda Aria amplifier and a pair of AKG K701s, and a pair of Grado RS-1s. Possibly, I would like to get a Micro DAC as well.

I have a fifth generation iPod that has been RockBoxed. I use my Total Bithead with it. I have an AudioLineOut bling bling interconnect. I normally use my Shures and Etymotics with it.

I don't own any speakers.

If you're into DIY Piccolo maybe I can interest you in this:
http://www.tangentsoft.net/audio/pimeta/ (or any other DIY amp on the site)

Currently I don't have enough free time for another DIY project (still have to finish a few things on the second b-tech like socketed opamp and new power connector)... so the PIMETA has to wait :(

Quite simply, no. I just can't tell the difference unless it's 96 whatevers.

This is what I want:

http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/aria.htm

I hear it has good synergy (ugh) with the K701s. I'm not sure that I buy that, but I've heard it's good, and it's very snazzy looking to boot.

Hehe, I should support that because it's hardware made in Germany *g*

The Aria's a heck of an amp, but good luck tracking one down. I managed to hear one at a Head-Fi meet that happened in Chicago when I was there, and it's stunning, but due to its limited nature, finding one isn't always a simple matter.

I was told by a Head-Fier that they do in fact still make them, and than the line about only 500 being made isn't true.

They do? I was unaware of that if it's the case. All the better then.

I must say yes. I collect music despite whatever is (game, OSTs, mainstream...) People use to collect strange things (stamps, rocks, girls :P), I think my punish in life is music :D

I'm of the very strong opinion that you're doing something wrong if you spend more money on your sound system than on your music collection.

I personally use the headphone output of an iPod nano or my laptop to run a pair of Etymotic ER-6's, or the line-out of an iPod dock and a 60 watt Technics SA-626 receiver to run a rebuilt pair of Yamaha NS-690 speakers. I occasionally run a cheap Technics turntable with a Grado Black cartridge, though I've never really caught the appeal of vinyl. I think that I paid maybe $500 for the whole system, and half of that was the cost of my iPod, plus $100 to buy the speakers and get them refoamed and rebuilt. :\

At one time, I used AKG K501 headphones with a MINT amplifier, an X-Fi sound card, and a Sansui 9090DB receiver, but all of those parts have been sold except for the headphones, which I swapped for my current ER-6's. I honestly didn't find that they truly improved my listening experience compared to the simple system that I'm using now. Maybe in another hundred CD's, I'll buy another 9090DB (or, better yet, a CR-2020 or another suitably beefy old Yamaha receiver) and a set of Magnepans. ^_^

Oh, and I think I said it before in this thread, but I use 256KBPS AAC as my standard archive format, and I try to download music in APS VBR or better. That said, I have bought quite a bit of stuff off of the iTunes Music Store (128K AAC), and I don't find it to sound that bad. :\

Well, I don't know about that. Anything that can increase my musical enjoyment is good and worth buying. And a good pair of headphones does just that. I can't believe I ever used those crappy Sony MDR-V600s! My SR-60s are better in every way! (And $30 cheaper, too.) And the amplifier I bought, well, the crossfeed effect alone is more than worth the entire cost. It makes listening so much easier and more natural, especially when using soundstage-impaired headphones such as IEMs.

And there are always nicer headphones to get you even closer to your music... :D

Where can I grab one?

On their website, they have a page where they have ordering information, so you most likely would have to contact them and ask for one. I can't give you a link because I need more posts to be able to do so, but just search for "Corda Aria" on google, and go to their home page. There should be a "how to order" link under info.

Either that or you could try out eBay, or browse through the head-fi forums and hope someone has it for sale.