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Old 15th January 2019, 15:31   #6646  |  Link
asarian
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Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 1,462
Quote:
Originally Posted by jd17 View Post
Nobody questions that lossless - in theory, or better measurably - is always better.
However, this is a forum that pretty much evolves around compression efficiency, i.e. saving bits where we don't see or hear it.

This is why I (and plenty others here too) take these lossless audio streams and compress them to 200-600kbit/s AAC or opus.

And while these codecs are obviously far superior to the ancient AC-3, you'd be surprised how good 640kbit/s Dolby Digital really is.
Accordingly, if the same master (and volume) is used, you would most likely fail in telling TrueHD apart from Dolby Digital, if you don't know which is playing.
'CD Quality' is 44.1 KHz/16 bit audio, generally considered 'very good' for music. Movies are a different thing, though. AC3 (aka DD 5.1) yields reasonable results at (almost always) 640kbps. But the difference between DTS-MA/TrueHD vs. AC3 is, well, unimaginably high. Believe me, I was in the same camp as you, one day, thinking you wouldn't be able to tell the difference... until I got an actual HD Amp. The fullness of the track when you switch to HD audio is staggering -- to the point where I can barely bear to listen to AC3 any more. In fact, for every Blu-ray I order (unless it's some sort of vintage deal), I first check to see whether it comes with HD Audio. If not, I simply don't buy it.

I'm not familiar with compressing audio 'to 200-600kbit/s AAC or opus' myself, so I'll take your word on those codecs.
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