this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Same concept as 720p vs 1080p but not exactly. Audio can be compressed in the same way that video can; certain flavour gets lost for the sake of smaller file size. In video, that means loss of colour spectrum, visuals aren't as sharp and even artifacting when pushed too far. In audio that translates to loss of range so certain instruments can completely disappear from a song, other instruments aren't as crisp and so on. Depending on those $20 headphones, you might be able to make out a difference. The earphones, it's much less likely. There are some $20 earphones such as KBEars which are far better than they have any right to be and make being an audiophile more accessible, if it ever tickles your fancy.
Two simple facts of good audio: 1: Good audio stays good so no need to worry about age so long as equipment hasn't been abused. 2: You can only spend so much before you get diminishing returns.
And what is the difference between YouTube and other platforms?
Does YouTube "compress" the audio more or something so it loses detail?
Youtube compresses the beejeezus out of everything and has a low bitrate for the sake of keeping cost down because of the insane amount of people it provides content to. The low bitrate is why you see artifacting on videos (that's when it gets weirdly pixelated without having dropped a quality setting). All streaming platforms do it to some extent or another for the same reason but some have what is called "lossless" audio on their paid tiers. Ones that I know of are Tidal and Deezer. I've heard Spotify offers it too on their HIFI service but I don't know the details of it.
That's good to know, I'll try out those other services.