[LAU] What is the best MP3 encoder?

[Florian Paul Schmidt]

On 04/02/2013 02:35 PM, Peder Hedlund wrote:
>
>> And those "certain things" always could be part of the music and usually
>> are part of the music, people usually are simply not trained to notice
>> this, they wouldn't notice, if Jimi Hendrix plays a Flying V or a
>> Stratocaster, the way Hendrix played guitar I suspect every guitarist
>> will hear the difference between a Flying V and Stratocaster.
>
> I saw a test where a bunch of professional musicians and engineers 
> listened to a guitar player playing an old $5000 Les Paul and a $500 
> copy and were asked to tell which was the expensive one. About half of 
> them failed, including the guitar player in the group.
> The same was true for a Stradivarius and a cheap beginners violin, 
> though IIRC the violin player was correct.

Personally I have found that like with all things there is a sweet spot 
above which you only get diminishing returns, if any. For electric 
guitars this sweet spot is in the 500-1000 euro range. I was lucky in 
that I found an early 90's Yamaha AS80-Vs for 350 euros in which I 
replaced the pickups for Seymour Duncan P-Rails (P90/Singlecoil package 
in a humbucker form factor) and modded the cabling to allow 
P90/SingleCoil, out-of phase and humbucker configuration, so I paid 
pretty much exactly 500 euros for it. I considered shelling out for a 
Gibson ES335 or a Yamaha AS 200, whenever I get the money, but honestly 
these don't sound or play significantly better..

I found that for classical guitars it's significantly higher though: In 
the 1500-2500 euro range (I only found this out because I got the chance 
to play some really nice classicals). A guitar student of mine likes my 
250 euro yamaha classical guitar better than either the Hans Herb I had 
for a while or the Bertrand Martin I play at the moment (they were lent 
to me by a friend who appreciates his guitars being actually played :D). 
The Hanikas in the 1700 euro range are very nice, too :D I consider 
saving up for one for the time when I have to return the Bertrand 
Martin. It's the same for any other audio equipment, too. People pay 
waaaay too much all the time because they don't trust their ears but 
rather listen to the hype.

Flo

-- 
Florian Paul Schmidt
http://fps.io