acoustic spectrum analyzer to verify sound quality

[Not_tech_savy]

I'm starting to look at getting music in higher quality like flac. I bought some off a site called 7digital and realized they have awful reviews. I guess they're known for transcoding (is that converting lower quality into higher quality?) their flac files. and I want to make sure the albums I just bought are in the quality I paid for.

What's the best program to get and is there one that will show me what my file should look like? so if its lower quality that got up converted could it show me what said file should look like if its a true 24bit flac?

MM says the details are good, but if something is transcoded from a lower to higher quality does that fake out what music programs think the quality is?

[Peke]

Hi,
Simple shown this is the difference of 12 vs 16 vs 24:


if put in words then:
-24/96 recording means higher audio resolution-more than 250 times higher than in 16/44.1
-The recording in 24/96 occupies approximately 3.25 times the recording space in 16/44.1

FLAC compress uncompressed Lossless Audio in 1/2 rate.

Main benefit of High Quality Audio is that Higher frequencies are in some cases present and even heard, but taking incount that most fo Common/Mid Range equipment have response range 15-28,000 Hz (Commonly 20-20,000 Hz) Which means that my Focusrite Solo Soundcard specs and My main headphones Audio Technica ATH-M70x are capable to produce 5-40,000Hz to my ears and only few orchestral classical tracks recorded in 24/192 actually produce higher frequnces that are aprox. 95% quieter than rest of freq. I can almost hear them as vibrations on a very high volume and isolated using Logarithmic EQ when post processing Audio. Unlike My PC when I had privilege to listen HQ Sample LP on VPI Prime Turntable in 2017 at local Audiophile Store. Then I really felt what is full range Audio in comparison of same recording at 24/96 and 24/192.

Also good reads are at:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200426050 ... young.html
https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/07/sa ... -bit-rate/

In the end it all goes to subjective opinion, as personally I have seen many people fail double blind test when it comes to Audio Quality.

Hope I cleared few things. I personally RIP in Original format of Media and FLAC that preserves lossless audio data.

[Andre_H]

you could check the audio file with "spek".

possible from MMW5 with a little script like that:

Code: Select all

//* open folder of selected track in Spek.*//

actions.openFileSpek = {
    title: _('Oeffne Track mit Spek ...'),
    icon: 'openFileSpek',
    disabled: uitools.notMediaListSelected,
    visible: window.uitools.getCanEdit,
    execute: async function () {	
	var list = await uitools.getSelectedTracklist().whenLoaded();
        
	if (list.count === 0) {
            return;
        }

        list.forEach(function(itm) {
        	var AppPath = "E:\\# Tools #\\Spek\\Spek.exe";
		var AppParameters = '"' + itm.path + '"'
		app.utils.shellExecute(AppPath, AppParameters)	
        });       

    }

}

window._menuItems.editTags.action.submenu.push({
        action: actions.openFileSpek,
        order: 40,
        grouporder: 10
});

... have to change that for your path to spek and those appearance things.

[Not_tech_savy]

Hi,
Simple shown this is the difference of 12 vs 16 vs 24:


if put in words then:
-24/96 recording means higher audio resolution-more than 250 times higher than in 16/44.1
-The recording in 24/96 occupies approximately 3.25 times the recording space in 16/44.1

FLAC compress uncompressed Lossless Audio in 1/2 rate.

Main benefit of High Quality Audio is that Higher frequencies are in some cases present and even heard, but taking incount that most fo Common/Mid Range equipment have response range 15-28,000 Hz (Commonly 20-20,000 Hz) Which means that my Focusrite Solo Soundcard specs and My main headphones Audio Technica ATH-M70x are capable to produce 5-40,000Hz to my ears and only few orchestral classical tracks recorded in 24/192 actually produce higher frequnces that are aprox. 95% quieter than rest of freq. I can almost hear them as vibrations on a very high volume and isolated using Logarithmic EQ when post processing Audio. Unlike My PC when I had privilege to listen HQ Sample LP on VPI Prime Turntable in 2017 at local Audiophile Store. Then I really felt what is full range Audio in comparison of same recording at 24/96 and 24/192.

Also good reads are at:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200426050 ... young.html
https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/07/sa ... -bit-rate/

In the end it all goes to subjective opinion, as personally I have seen many people fail double blind test when it comes to Audio Quality.

Hope I cleared few things. I personally RIP in Original format of Media and FLAC that preserves lossless audio data.

That cleared up quite a bit thank you. So I was just going for 24/44.1 to 48 and a high bit rate. Mostly listen on wireless wf1000xm4 earphones that have ldac and on my car stereo. (Android auto and a new subwoofer)
At least half of my music came from the torrenting craze of 12 or so years ago. I'm in the process of buying it all and want the highest quality my earphones and car stereo can play. Not expecting a huge difference maybe just a bit more crisp.

Mostly listen to Hip-Hop/Rap and Rock/Metal, I'm thinking pre 2,000s I'll do aac and after that flac. Would you have an opinion on that?

So according to your articles 16/44.1 with a bitrate of 192 should be the best for most use cases? If it has a good encoder?
And then do you recommend any websites to buy from? Itunes is my go to.
Streaming is out of the question for me, looking to purchase and download everything.

[Not_tech_savy]

you could check the audio file with "spek".

possible from MMW5 with a little script like that:

Code: Select all

//* open folder of selected track in Spek.*//

actions.openFileSpek = {
    title: _('Oeffne Track mit Spek ...'),
    icon: 'openFileSpek',
    disabled: uitools.notMediaListSelected,
    visible: window.uitools.getCanEdit,
    execute: async function () {	
	var list = await uitools.getSelectedTracklist().whenLoaded();
        
	if (list.count === 0) {
            return;
        }

        list.forEach(function(itm) {
        	var AppPath = "E:\\# Tools #\\Spek\\Spek.exe";
		var AppParameters = '"' + itm.path + '"'
		app.utils.shellExecute(AppPath, AppParameters)	
        });       

    }

}

window._menuItems.editTags.action.submenu.push({
        action: actions.openFileSpek,
        order: 40,
        grouporder: 10
});

... have to change that for your path to spek and those appearance things.

Spek is the one that I saw, before making this post. It looks like it hasn't been updated in quite some time. I have no idea how to code, but from Peke's articles it looks like I was shooting for a much higher quality than I need.
But thank you I will look into what you posted as well