Screens keep getting faster. Can you even tell?
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Is 480Hz OLED the future or a farce?

Screens keep getting faster. Can you even tell? | CES saw the launch of several 360Hz and even 480Hz OLED monitors. Are manufacturers stuck in a questionable spec war, or are we one day going to wo…::CES saw the launch of several 360Hz and even 480Hz OLED monitors. Are manufacturers stuck in a questionable spec war, or are we one day going to wonder how we ever put up with ‘only’ 240Hz displays?

  • @PastyWaterSnake
    English
    10•11 months ago

    I’ve bought pretty expensive equipment, tube amplifier, many fancy headphones, optical DACs. A library full of FLAC files. I even purchased a $500 portable DAP. I’ve never been able to reliably tell a difference between FLAC and 320k MP3 files. At this point, it really doesn’t concern me anymore either, but I at least like to see my fancy tube amp light up.

    I will say, though, $300 seems to be the sweet-spot for headphones for me.

    • @[email protected]English
      5•11 months ago

      I’ve never been able to reliably tell a difference between FLAC and 320k MP3 files

      I just keep FLAC around so I can transcode them to new lossy formats as they improve. And so I can transcode aggressively for my mobile when I’m streaming from home, and don’t need full transparency.

    • @pete_the_catEnglish
      3•11 months ago

      Yeah there’s a clear difference between a pair of $25 or $50 headphones and a pair that cost a few hundred. When I first got my Sony WH1000-XM3s I let my coworker try them and he said “Wow, I didn’t know music could sound this good!”. When I upgraded to the XM4s a few years later I let my brother try them and he was similarly impressed.

      Beyond a few hundred and the thousand dollar range you hit diminishing returns.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•11 months ago

      Blackmail – Evon. That’s the one song where I ever heard a difference, though that was ogg, dunno what bitrate I used back then but it was sufficient for everything else. Listening on youtube yep that’s mushy. The noisy goodness that kicks in at 0:30, it’s crisp as fuck on CD.

      …just not the kind of thing those codecs are optimised for I’d say. Also it still sounds fine, just a bit disappointing if you ever heard the uncompressed thing. Which is also why you should never try electrostatic headphones.