Also, if you would want the exact versions from the game, the ones which were previously hosted on Sierra, a working mirror is here. The lossless music has better quality expressed in kbps (I haven't noticed any real difference myself but I might simply be too little of a connoisseur) and sometimes different and/or longer introductions and/or endings, but the versions from the game are better for looping (no noticeable pauses between following tunes, creating an illusion of a single continuous tune rather than a series of separate ones).
The ones posted on Sierra's website were the same as the lossless versions I was able to procure, just in really poor quality (128 kbps).
I see. If that is so, the link I posted doesn't lead to the ones which were on Sierra but to files which were possibly taken directly from the game, seeing how their quality, introductions/endings and looping effects are just like the ones one can hear there. On a side note, I'm guessing this thread should be moved to the Arcanum Discussion forum.
I love vocal harmonic music (notorious for sound quality) and own a set of headphones that are more expensive than some of my friend's cars, but it's easy to take audiophile.... -ing ..... too far.
Anyway... If you just make the sound louder, these lousy 128 kbps MP3s make numerous obvious noises (very noticeable, because we have violins here, not some pop music), which the originals don't have. You can notice them even on a pair of 1$ earbuds.
Oh, don't get me wrong Drog, I'm all about the highest quality file you can get if possible. No reason to eat steak with dirt on it if you can get a dirt-free steak just as easy. All I meant was a little bit of dirt sometimes adds character, like the warm sound quality you get off an old analog LP album. Or, as you correctly pointed out, it doesn't matter when it's some shitty pop music that's auto-tuned to hell anyway.
I just compared some 128 kbps and 320 kbps Arcanum tunes (maximum volume test included) and found myself unable to notice any differences when it came to quality or background noise, up to the point that in case of those opuses which didn't have a modified introduction (for example "Arcanum" or "The Demise of the Zephyr") I wasn't even able to tell which is which (not counting the over 10x bigger file size of the 320s, of course). If someone told me he was actually playing the very same file over and over again as a revenge prank for something, I would have no reason not to believe him. The tests were done with headphones and a micro audio set, neither of them costing me 1$ (though the first object was a gift while the second a prize in a math competition so one could say none of them cost me anything at all, but I digress). My point is, if an average man with average hardware isn't able to notice any differences in quality no matter how hard he tries, your choice of words when it comes to describing how uber are the 320 kbps audio files compared to the 128 kbps ones is definitely too strong.
A lot of it comes down to your hearing accuracy (for lack of a better word), and precision. I can hear audio differences most people don't pick up on. I can tell the difference between the Arcanum in-game music, and the 320kbps version. I also, which may contribute to it, have high end audio equipment everywhere, because I tend to notice these differences, and prefer nicer quality sound to your average set of speakers.
With the right equipment and high enough volume levels, it is very easy to notice compression artifacts in 128kbps mp3s, or even 160kbps ones. Never heard any in properly encoded 192kbps files though.
I'm usually not very perceptive in regards to anything, especially sound and particularly music. Using a cheap set of earbuds & onboard audio, I struggled to notice a difference in quality (might've been slightly noticeable) and could have quite happily listened to either without knowing the difference. On my AD-900's / MS-1i's and a Xonar Essence STX however, the drop in quality was quite severe when listening to the MP3 version to the point where it felt like my ears were bleeding. So I guess it depends a lot on what you've got and how fussy you are. Why anyone thought lossy compression was a good idea for anything is beyond me.
I haven't tested this in the field, but I believe I am immune to sound quality. I imagine my audio sensitivity is below the average, but I'm alright with that. It has served me especially well on those occasions I have deigned to prank my co-workers. I can hear some frequencies. Others I cannot and downloading and looping the mp3 files of those frequencies spreads damage to my co-workers that I am insensible to.
