Using iphone, music downloads at 128 kbps

Props to you, just downloaded a song myself from iTunes directly to my iPhone and it showed up at 128kbps. Downloaded to my MBP at 256, synced it to the phone and it is now 256.

Go here to tell Apple about it: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

I would imagine it was put into place to save bandwidth but I can find nothing that mentions it.

AFAIK, ALL songs currently supplied by the iTunes Store are in 256k AAC format with the exception of iTunes in the Cloud downloads of previous & not yet upgraded purchases in the old 128k protected format. So, I don't understand how you think songs you are now purchasing are 128k.

I just sent my feedback in, I would advise you to quickly do the same thing. I think the other reason people may not have noticed (I know I didn't) is if they are syncing fairly often, and have automatic download turned on, it is overwriting the 128 version with the 256 version.

I can, my ears are not gone yet. You particularly lose depth of bass and any high ends like bells, triangles, etc.

For music I rip from CD I use Apple Lossless and I can hear the difference between that and 256 on some music.

No, as I said in my addendum, I watched the file being downloaded and it showed 7.4MB downloaded, which is the same size as the 256kbps version downloaded to my MBP. On the iPhone I looked at bitrate and file size. It showed 128kbps and 6.6MB. When I synced the one from the MBP this changed to 256Kbps and 7.4MB. It is being transcoded.

Try it.

deggie wrote:

I can, my ears are not gone yet. You particularly lose depth of bass and any high ends like bells, triangles, etc.

For music I rip from CD I use Apple Lossless and I can hear the difference between that and 256 on some music.

Obviously, deggie, you did not listen to enough really loud rock music in your youth. 😉

No, I plugged mine in just like you did and selected both bit rate and file size in the view options.

To see the file size as it downloads to your iPhone tap the badge with the 1 in red in the More button then tap downloads and it will show the size that is being downloaded.

javajeff wrote:

paulcb, the higher bit rates hold more music information. CDs operate at 1,411 kbps. Music you buy in mp3 or aac format are compressed.

Understood, just curious if anyone can really tell the difference outside of a recording studio and $300 headphones, i.e. day to day and song to song.

Sure Paul, lots of young people can, particularly if they are using the newer earpods. Myself I am using $300 headphones and a headphone amp sometimes and I can hear it. Don't have to be in a recording studio where they usually don't use headphones in the recording room.

I'm thinking this has to be a bug in the way iTunes is reporting the bit size of the music on the device. I have an iPad here in which I downloaded all the music that I have purchased in iTunes. Only the music videos show as 256Kbps.

The songs, show as 128Kbps but the file sizes are the exact same size as the 256Kbps size files on my actual computer. I don't think the music on my iPad is actually 128Kbps or the file sizes would be half the size.

Haven't checked on my iPad, but my iPhone definitely showed and different bit rate AND file size.

Will try downloading another one later today that is a better recording and not so heavily mixed and listen for differences.