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  #1  
Old 06-07-2015, 05:01 PM
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BrunoBlack BrunoBlack is offline
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Default How well can you tell audio quality.

Take the short test. You may be surprised.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecor...m_term=nprnews
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Old 06-07-2015, 05:05 PM
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Song samples would not load for me.
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Old 06-07-2015, 05:11 PM
Bingoccc Bingoccc is offline
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I don't have time now but I'm looking forward to trying this. I know my hearing has gone down hill over the years. Thanks for posting.
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Old 06-07-2015, 05:48 PM
printer2 printer2 is online now
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Picked the wave file once, 320 kbps three time and one at 126 kbps. Not too bad with constant tinnitus and the neighbor cutting their grass.
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by printer2 View Post
Picked the wave file once, 320 kbps three time and one at 126 kbps. Not too bad with constant tinnitus and the neighbor cutting their grass.
Me too, exactly...except for the grass part...

I admit I couldn't tell the difference. My choices were lucky.
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:13 PM
Irish Pennant Irish Pennant is offline
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This is a before and after test.

Before I listen I'll say that my ability to tell audio quality is poor. I've had tinnitus since my early 20's and I'm in my 50's now. I'm exposed to loud noise 5 to 7 days a week and I'm aways saying "what did you say".

Now I will go listen.


Back from listening: results, inclusive.

I have no idea what the outcome of the test was, every time I made a choice the screen went blank. I guess I'll have to be content with knowing my ability to tell audio quality is either real good, bad or somewhere in between.
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:14 PM
RustNeverSleeps RustNeverSleeps is offline
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Only picked 2 correctly.

Thanks for posting - will try again tomorrow through some speakers instead of headphones!
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:19 PM
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This popped up on my FB feed the other day. As a card-carrying audiophile, albeit one with aging ears, I was pleased that I could identify the hi-res recordings 4 out of 6 times. That was through my crappy computer speakers. Plus one of my mistakes was on the Jay-Z track, so that doesn't count.
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Haasome View Post
Take the short test. You may be surprised.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecor...m_term=nprnews
Stuff like this has only the resolution of the signal chain you are feeding it through. Yes, if you have a discerning ear you may be able to somewhat reliably tell differences even thru a bad signal chain. But why bother? If your gear is at least as good as the best the test has to offer, then and only then is the test valid.
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Old 06-07-2015, 06:57 PM
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I got 2 out of 4. I refused to listen to Jay Z and Katy Perry. It's a matter of principle. I have acute tinnitus, too.
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Old 06-07-2015, 07:12 PM
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I feel that my hearing is truly nothing special. Yet, surprisingly, I got 5 of 6 correct, and, I really did not just guess.

Huh.

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Old 06-07-2015, 07:16 PM
Captaincranky Captaincranky is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacks Focus View Post
This popped up on my FB feed the other day. As a card-carrying audiophile, albeit one with aging ears, I was pleased that I could identify the hi-res recordings 4 out of 6 times. That was through my crappy computer speakers. Plus one of my mistakes was on the Jay-Z track, so that doesn't count.
If taking the test requires listening to Jay-Z, me and my assessment of my hearing are going to plod forward in blissful ignorance.
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Old 06-07-2015, 09:36 PM
Rmz76 Rmz76 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Haasome View Post
Take the short test. You may be surprised.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecor...m_term=nprnews

Aside from good ears, you'll also need reasonably high-end headphones or monitors to tell the difference (if you'll hear any at all). The jump from 16-bit audio encoded at 128 kbps to 256 kbps won't be noticeable to most listeners. You still have compression artifacts. Even if you encode at 320 kbps (arguably CD quality) we're still talking about 16-bit audio where the goal is to get the streaming and downloadable media up to CD uncompressed standards.

I have very little interest in that. I do have an interested in super-high resolution audio(24-bit uncompressed audio, e.g. FLAC). When you cross over that threshold most people will hear a difference. I know Neil Young's Pono player features 24-bit uncompressed support and that's kind of it's selling point (no one seems to be interested except musicians). There's a big jump in bandwidth requirement for 24-bit. I don't think Apple is planning to do that.
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Old 06-07-2015, 10:06 PM
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I'm aware of not a single double blind abx test that showed anyone could reliably pick out the difference between 44/16 and 96/24 or even 192/24. The AES did one for a year and nobody got it.

The ear can't hear above 20khz and that is the ONLY difference higher sampling rate gives you. Your dog can hear the difference, as their hearing extends. Ours doesn't. Especially when we get older.

For bit depth, if you turn the music up really loud as the music is fading out it will be obvious because you can hear how the reverb tails and or fade outs happen. That is the difference in bit depth... More Dynamic range. But the CD actually puts out more dynamic range than us humans are capable of detecting when listening at listenable levels.

Pono is snake oil, unless the go back to the original recordings and remove all the brick wall peak limiting and completely remaster to bring back the real dynamics.

Funny how people say Pono sounds more like vinyl but vinyl has much less dynamic range and restricted frequency response, low end has to be cut off so the needle stays in the groove.
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  #15  
Old 06-07-2015, 10:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Haasome View Post
Take the short test. You may be surprised.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecor...m_term=nprnews
I listened to this through my computer speakers and picked the uncompressed WAV file 3 out of 6 times and the other 3 times picked the 320kb MPG3. I think if I had plugged in my Grados it would have been too easy.

I could always tell which one was the 128k mp3 right away but I was sometimes fooled between the 320k kb and the uncompressed WAV. I noticed that I got it right on the three samples which were music I generally listen to and faltered more on the music I'm less keen on (such as the Jay-Z song).

At the end it said: "You got 3 out of 6 correct!

If you did well on this and were listening through built-in speakers, you either have extraordinary ears or got lucky."

I think guitar players have better than average ears for tone.
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