Audio Compression

But u for sure don't listen to all your 100+ shows all the time.....
but u do have a point there.

I prefer listening stuff with my stereo system, since i have decent set, with computer i just occasionally play something while working on it.

I haven't listened to all of all of the new shows I've got in the month of having broadband and using the hub, but I generally listen to all of my music, loading different albums or concerts one after the other.

I don't have a stereo system, just my DVD player and surround sound, which can play mp3 discs, but it is in my bedroom, which my PC isn't, and as I spend more time on my computer it isn't worth burning everything to listen to in my room.

my HDD is also 80 gig..I download and then burn..simple ;d

Well the human hearing range is said to be around 20Hz to 20kHz in theory, but in most cases, it is actually around 1kHz - 15kHz. I was required to investigate this at college, which is why I know. This means that all frequencies outside the 1-15kHz band can be filtered out as they are needless and this results in audio files being smaller.

As for the best format to use then I'm not too sure, but I usually prefer MP3 or WMV. I've tried OGG, but I didn't notice any difference in quality, and file sizes tend to be a bit bigger due to not as many frequencies being filtered out.

you can tell the difference between mp3 + shn (for example) easily...theres no comparison ;d

maybe its just me, I have hearing in my right ear that only 1/5 of the population has (shame I cant hear shite in my left hehe ;d)

Not true. There are many instruments that go beyond the 1kHz limit and are still heard, like the lower bass strings and bass drum. In fact, to get the "oomph" out of a kick drum, you need to EQ the 50hz area a little louder. The higher frequencies add clarity to the sound and therefore cannot be dropped either.

People might not be able to single out instruments or tones beyond a certain frequency range, but they still affect how the music is heard. If you want to narrow it down so that you don't lose any vital information, you need to stick within the 20Hz-20kHz range.

Ice

Here's the actual hearing range of a human. The lower the sound gets the more powerful it needs to be to sound as loud as a higher frequency sound, but it's still audible. Notice the dip in speech-frequencies, we hear human speech the best.

More on the subject: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...nd/earcrv.html

Ice

Yeah I agree with the lower hearing range, but the bass frequencies in most cases are not amplified enough to make audible over the treble frequencies. Sometimes the only way you can pick out the very low bass frequencies is to be far away from the source while listening. No doubt you've noticed this. It's because the lower the frequency of the signal, the longer the wavelength, which means lower frequencies travel further than high frequencies. Now as pretty much all people listen to music while they are near the source (i.e. in car, bedroom, etc) then the very lowest frequencies will not be audible and unless you want to boost them, then they can be discarded.

As for the higher frequency sounds, it is probably safe to discard anything above 16kHz. Although when I was in the lab generating sounds at college I found that I or anyone else could not hear sounds above 15.2kHz.

Yeah, it is true that we hear speech the best. That ranges from around 30Hz to 3.3kHz if I remember rightly (not 100% on this one).