- Pretty great demo! It'd be great to see a 128/192 comparison.
I had Tidal many years back, and from the Lossless v Regular I only ever noticed a difference when it came to breathy sounds/etc. I did see that Tidal would burn through like 50GB of data monthly though.
Also - you may want to test some more modern recordings, the microphone/mastering quality of things nowadays is far better than what it was 2 decades ago (despite what some audiophiles may claim)
- I’ve done a bunch of testing over the years including a similar test of ‘can people hear mp3 compression’ as well as comparison of mp3 variable bit rate qualities.
In practice, on average playback equipment (by which I mean decent hifi) in an average listening environment most people can’t tell the difference.
But… I’ve also done blind testing with a top mastering engineer on studio speakers and he was able to identifying 48 vs 192 reliably.
Mastering quality was ruined by the battle for perceived loudness. So masters with decent degrees of dynamic range is definitely helpful.
- I mean 48 is pretty much trash. Id hope a top mastering engineer can tell the difference between that and 192...
- Correctly identified with 100% accuracy. The author said they can't, but for me the mp3 versions have noticeable high frequency artifacts that make the recording sound slightly less clear. Using Sony XM5
- You might enjoy this: https://mattmontag.com/audio-listening-test/
- I will concur with that.
When I first started encoding MP3s I used a 128kbps rate which is noticeably inferior to the original CD. I noticed this in the early 2000s when I would up listening to a CD of some music I usually listened to as a 128kbps MP3 and was blown away with how much more I heard.
I'd say that 192kbps is much better and the 320kbps that the author advocates is basically transparent.
- Some people simply have better hearing than others.
Also, you can train yourself for what to listen for, to a point.
- Noted, but I think I'll pass. Doesn't seem to be much benefit if you have to train yourself to discern a difference just so you can stream massive files.
Of course this does matter to some people and I say "have fun".
6 points by nomemory 1 hour ago | 8 comments