How well can you hear audio quality?

[paradoxal 2948]

I just stumbled upon this article on NPR Music. I can't wait to get home and try this.

 

 

Recently, the rapper Jay Z relaunched the subscription streaming music service Tidal, which includes the option to listen to high-definition audio for $19.99 per month. Tidal's HiFi, with its uncompressed audio files, promises a better listening experience than any other streaming service on the market.

 

Many listeners cannot hear the difference between uncompressed audio files and MP3s, but when it comes to audio quality, the size of the file isn't (ahem) everything. There are plenty of other ingredients to consider, from the quality of your headphones to the size of the room you're sitting in to, well, your own ears.

 

Can you hear the difference? Take this quiz to find out. One hint: Turn your volume up.

 

 

The test is on the same page as the article.

 

Songs that were used are

 

 

1. Katy Perry - Dark Horse

2. Coldplay - Speed of Sound

3. Jay Z - Tom Ford

4. Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner

5. Murray Perahia & the English Chamber Orchestra - Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17, K. 453 (II. Andante)

6. Neil Young - There's A World

 

 

Any thoughts on this particular "test"?

Can you hear the difference?

What do you think of the songs that were chosen?

[Danao 759]

I first did it with my logitech speakers and here's the result

 

 

I then did it with my headphones on, and got only 3/6 but never made a mistake between 128 and 320 so I guess it's ok, the amount of uncompressed rips you can find mostly depends on the quality of your speakers/headphones, and depends also if you pay attention to details or not, plus if you like/love the song you can easily find the good and the bad rip. Well 3/6 with headphones is not bad

 

Also the song that have been chosen just show the variety of music you can listen to nowadays, at least a part of it.

 

Nice test, people should try it and give us a screen of the results + what they used to do it

[paradoxal 2948]

Wow, nice score @Danao!

 

I'm just waiting to read @Seimeisen's score on this test. If you don't get 6/6 I will never ever upload any lossless rips for you just kidding

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I used speakers plugged into a laptop, truly only got 1 out of 6 right, but 4 other times I just picked the 320 kbps ones... so I guess my mentality got validated, heh (that I don't care about lossless, or at least can't hear the difference, 320 is fine enough for me).

[JukaForever 758]

got 6/6 as well, I didn't even have to listen to the quality. The uncompressed versions took longer to load -.- Foobar ABX is where its at if you want a truly fair trial.

[BrenGun 2261]

5/6

 

logitec speakers and woofer.

somehow my woofer made more boemm... with the loseless file.. haha

I only had that VOCAL only file wrong.

Also I think CLASSICAL music is also damn difficult to check if it is 320kbps/lossless. At least the file they had uploaded.

 

Also I still think it's really up to what kind of music it is. sometimes a 128kbps file sounds like a 320kbps file.  some files simply trick everybody

 

I  almost never keep my FLAC files. 320kbps is good enough its not that your music will sound so horrible. XD

[chewi 54]

they all sounded the same to me. i scored 2/6. never really considered myself an audiophile in that way anyways.

[Champ213 1858]

I did a similar test a while ago already, and my results weren't any better than pure chance, so yeah. Not an audiophile either. I can usually tell when something is below 128k, but above that, barely.

 

Also, as someone who listens to a lot of old and/or obscure vk stuff, bitrate never really was the main concern anyway because quite often the recording quality is just bad to begin with. There are some songs I love dearly even though they sound like they were recorded in a Port-a-John. You think I would be bothered about the intricacies of sound differences between 192k and 320k? Naw. XD

[nekkichi 6043]

interesting, I tried this with katy perry sample, and 320 kbps sounded >>better for me (imac @ safari, plus some pretty worn out panasonic headphones); wav sample sounded BETTER, but it didn't have the same kick for my ear. interesting things.

I can spot difference between itunes and vlc playing same music differently w/o extra equalizer tuning on same set-up, 320 kbps safari is closer to vlc.

[saishuu 3220]

tested with regular in-ear headphones plugged into my PC and got 1/6 right. 5 out of 6 times I picked 320 or WAV, but I really couldn't tell what was different between the 128kbps versions either. not really an audiophile too.

[denkserw 2]

i got 3/6 with headphones in pc. the 3 wrong where 2/ 360 and 1 /128. the 128 was katy perry . i understood there was something wrong with the 128 usually but between 360 and the best  quality ,it was very difficult. to the point i wonder why people care so much about lossless (especially in a free download forum) except if it's their  job.

[YuyoDrift 1540]

http://imgur.com/6CQVs0I

 

First try, on a pair of Shure SE-215 headphones.

 

I grew up listening to 128kpbs quality songs, before even knowing that there was better quality out there (thanks Apple, you fucking bastards). Once I was exposed to 320kpbs, I was sickened by the fact that my ears had never heard anything of that caliber. Then I heard lossless (bought my first CD). I was so mad haha.

 

I guess you can say that I trained my ears to distinguish the details between 320k and FLAC through constant listening. It's a night and day difference now.

 

For example, with Katy's song, I could hear her lips smack and the wind pass through her teeth as she spoke in Lossless, and with the 128Kpbs, it sounded like murmuring lol.

 

I agree with some of the others, that mention that you can only be so good at telling the difference, with the proper equipment. Shitty Skullcandy/Apple/Anything under $60 (sorry to those who think they're good), headphones will not sound as great as anything with an armature driver/dynamic driver or higher (i.e. IEMs)(think Shure, Sennenheiser, beyerdynamic, AKG) because they're enhanced (picture something like a hearing aid for old peopled/deaf people) with a tweeter/speaker combo, as well as better noise isolation. Not to be confused with noise cancellation.

[Devilish_Eye 1168]

Oh I want to try this too when I'm back home this Wednesday. I probably fail because I fail