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How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?

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I see a lot of folks around here raving about raw/lossless formats and buying a ton of gear to match. But can you really tell the difference between 128kbps and 320 kbps (shouldn't be hard, right?). Howe about between mp3@320 to lossless wav?
Well, if you're brave enough and honest enough, you should go ahead and take this quiz.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

Cognitive dissonance likely.
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Ravmyster1121
11
Nov 30, 2021
Managed to go 50/50 with my grados cranked right out of my macbook. And if i'm honest I guessed a couple of them. The only one I knew for sure was coldplay as that one sounded wider and fuller if that makes any sense. Another interesting observation was that of all the ones that I got wrong, I never selected the 128kbs tracks. It was always between the 320 and the WAV for me.
(Edited)
DoctorImpaler
15
Sep 2, 2018
It greatly depends on the music. Some simple** acoustic music - probably not for 128kbps. Some more complex music - absolutely, I can tell the difference right away.
Also, there's a very good reason A/B testing, as opposed to A/B/C testing is generally in properly conducted studies. People have a really hard time discerning between three things, as opposed to two. Either the people who did the test don't know what they're doing, or they intentionally sabotaged the test to prove a point.
Wolfman887
65
Aug 30, 2018
With just the speaker on my phone I got a 4 out of 6. With headphones I could do much better.
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rdodev
632
Oct 20, 2018
You’re conflating skepticism with accusations of any kind. If you don’t get my posture based on “i find that hard to believe”, and “spark my doubt” then you’re choosing to interpret based on ill-will.
shimage
228
Oct 20, 2018
Wolfman887n is kind of low. Bare minimum on hydrogen audio back in the day was 16/16 in proper abx. 4/6 is indistinguishable from random. 6/6 is better than 10/12, but also not that informative as a data point. That said, it's not that hard to find people that can abx 320kbps mp3 reliably. It's a lot harder to find people that do the same with a modern codec (eg, high-bitrate itunes aac). For myself, I know I can't hear the difference anymore. Back in the dawn of digital music, I could do it even on what was crap equipment at the time.
AllegroMaestoso
112
Aug 30, 2018
Fun and fascinating test. Thank you, rdodev. My setup was PC USB audio to my Denon PMA-60 compact integrated amplifier, connected directly to my Focal Elex headphones. I got 4/6 correct, missing Neil Young and Perahia's Mozart. I agree with the comments that the Mozart was surprisingly poor quality for a classical recording and that Young's performance was poorly mastered.
I rarely stream music (Amazon Prime Music only very occasionally), because a major part of my experience is the control I can exert researching, collecting, organizing, and curating my absolute favorites. Listening to exactly what I when, when I want, no strings attached, is immensely satisfying.
When I shop for music I've read about or heard and like (usually on Sirius XM), my first stop is 7Digital. If they don't have a FLAC version, I'll buy the mp3 from Amazon. If 7Digital does have FLAC, I'll usually spring for the highest resolution. Lossless vs. lossy is one thing - why would you buy 70% of something if the 100% version is available for a little more money? The storage space and download time arguments are no longer valid. And for the most part, yes, I can tell the difference between mp3 and FLAC/CD quality - mp3 is weaker, shallower, less detailed, phony. It just feels like there's less music there. What about higher sampling rates? If scientists have proven that we can't hear the difference, you may wonder why I bother. Elitism? Probably. But I need that. I want to be among the elite, the cognoscenti, the discerning, refined listeners. A few more cents for a 96 kHz/24 bit version vs 44.1 kHz/16 bit? Definitely worth it to my ego.
As many other commentators have pointed out here, there are many pieces to the puzzle. The entire chain from performance to listening is important - engineering, mastering, playback, decoding, software, hardware, all of it. When you put garbage in, you'll get garbage out. But well-produced music can be thrilling at most levels. I'm listening to the Special Disco mix of Blondie's "Rapture" right now in 269 kbps mp3 (on Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers), and it is VERY good. I know it would be even better in lossless.
LunaticS0UL
8
Aug 25, 2018
5/6. TIL Neil Young's stuff is mastered like shit.
Xymnslot
380
Aug 25, 2018
Welp, this pretty much sold me on not needing to switch from Spotify to Tidal. I only got one right (two really, I did it on my phone and poked the wrong one, but the results are sufficiently clear regardless).
Listening on my Galaxy S9 with brand new Shure SE846s. Someone convince me I need a DAC! Surely I'd have aced this quiz with a proper DAC to complement my overpriced (but absolutely lovely) IEMs.
BlueSkies
89
Aug 24, 2018
Higher sampling rates will not produce a more accurately recreated sound wave in the frequency range humans can hear.
Search online and you can find many articles written by experienced and well educated engineers who all explain why it is simply not possible to hear any difference. It has to do with the way the original sound wave is handled mathematically. If the sampling frequency is at or above about 40 kHz, every part of the original sound wave that a human can hear can be recreated perfectly. A higher rate will not produce a more accurate recreation of that wave. Higher rates can obviously record higher frequencies, but those are normally filtered out anyway and in some cases their presence can cause unwanted problems.
For "better" sound, look to the amplification end of the chain, as well as the headphones you use.
rdodev
632
Aug 25, 2018
BlueSkiesThis is why I'm often baffled at so many folks throwing ooodles of money at DACs just because they support xyz bitrate dsd and flac and $100 "audiophile" usb cables (which makes absolutely no sense, btw).
Rhamnetin
172
Aug 25, 2018
rdodevI don't think people actually spend more money on DACs just for higher bitrate and DSD, rather those are just the icing on the cake for them. I'd hope...
On the subject of DACs though, it is true that its impact on the sound is probably overrated for non-electrostatic systems. E.g., I was using an Audeze LCD-4 and LFF Code-6 (modded HiFiMan HE-6) earlier this year with a Mjolnir Audio Pure BiPolar amp (which is about as good as it gets), and Chord Mojo vs Chord Hugo 2 was a noticeable but not gigantic difference. Can easily live with the Mojo there. Though the difference would be a bit more pronounced with the Focal Utopia, Sennheiser HD 800, and Abyss Phi I'm sure.
Once you get to elite Stax systems though (and electrostatic loudspeakers of course), they become so revealing that DAC differences become bigger than amp differences if comparing DACs/amps to others in the same class. Chord Mojo actually completely ruins the system compared to a Hugo 2, makes it sound like crap in every way compared to a Hugo 2.
RayF
22214
Aug 23, 2018
I refuse to take part in any quiz that forces me to listen to Jay Z and Katy Perry! Rigged quiz, so unfair!!! Sad.
RayF
22214
Aug 25, 2018
We each have our limits, Mr. Hardt.
Fluffy.Benis
72
Aug 25, 2018
I found those two hardest (plus Coldplay). I think they were most likely to have been mastered with typical consumer listening setups (low quality mp3 and meh earbuds) in mind.
phoenixsong
1055
Aug 23, 2018
Got 5/6 right, chose the 320kbps one for Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner. Was running straight out of my laptop soundcard into a speaker! I think the more horrible it sounds, the easier it is for the human ear to pick out the differences XD
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com/format.htm
A day late but these are the files my prior post was referencing. Great set of files where the only difference is the level of encoding. Same mastering session, decently long samples. I like to "blind" my friends and then ask them to guess the encoding level of the first randomized sample. I then ask them if the next two samples were higher or lower sample rates than the first track.
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