I think I’ve been doing this for about 5 years or so. I always did this in Windows and in the last year or so I started doing it in Linux.
Currently I’m running Linux Mint 17.3 xfce 64 bit. I’m running Audacity 2.1.2. Last night I upgraded it in hopes that it would somehow solve my problem. It did not. Headphones I use is the Koss UR40. I use the Sandisk Sansa Clip + and I have rockbox installed.
This all started several weeks ago.
Usually when I buy mp3s I download them from Amazon. Then Unzip them and after that I load all of them up into Audacity. Next I export them as a 128 constant bit rate files. I make all of them stereo. Over all of these years I’ve never touched any of the encoder settings. I don’t make it go faster or slower. Everything is on default.
After I get done doing that I load all my mp3s into a tag program. If it’s windows then I used Mp3tag, and if it’s in Linux I use Puddletag. After getting the tags the way I like them, I just copy and paste the songs onto my player.
I want whoever reads this to realize that I understand that the higher the bit rate = higher quality and the lower bit rate = lower quality. But through many listenings I had decided that 128 is alright for the equipment and the condition of my hearing. (Whatever condition my ears might be in)
I listen to mainly Hard Rock, Metal, Alternative, and some Celtic music.
The other day I had downloaded two new albums by two bands I am very familiar with. When I played both bands back, something just didn’t feel right too me. But I figured it must just be the way these guys decided to do things in the studio. But two days ago I downloaded some new stuff and when I was listening to them. I realized that my hearing wasn’t feeling right. I tried to lower the volume, and I even tried to change the EQs but made anything sound better. Finally I did something I don’t normally do. I went back to Amazon and downloaded the originals and put them directly onto the Mp3 player. When I played those back everything sounded like it should.
I got out my Windows laptop, and I used Audacity to remake one 128 version of one song. And I did the same thing on the Linux mint machine. Then lined all three songs up and compared. Then I took the same three I had made and did the same on my other computer. What I come up with is, the 128 made on the Windows computer sounded just a little closer to the original then the one made on the Linux computer.
All year I’ve been using the Linux Mint machine with Audacity to make the conversion from whatever bit rate down to 128 and everything has been fine, up until now.
Is there anything I can check, or re install that could solve what is going on?