Can you spot the difference? Test your Ears & Equipment. Blind hearing test.

[Sharp_3yE]

Can you notice the difference? Take the blind test. This audio quality bind test was posted in 2015. I've done it before and recently stumbled upon it again. So I thought, "HEY why not see how well others on this forum do?"

 

Post your results in screen shots or type it out and tell me which ones you thought were most difficult to hear. If you know any other tests or interesting articles on the topic of audio quality, post it. Ill show my results. 

 

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

[Sharp_3yE]

First test today. I think the Jay Z one is the hardest to figure out cuz of the electronic stuff. Same thing with Katy Perry.  But I was picking between the 2nd and 3rd one for the Jay Z song but ended choosing the 2nd and was very wrong. The other two I was wrong with I at least didn't pick the 128. I could typically hear which one sounded like the 128. Though, I am wondering what quality of audio files these are. At least they have to be CD quality I would assume for the uncompressed. 

 

[HanZie82]

Also got 3 out of 6 on my old and crusty Z5500.
But the JayZ and Katy ones were the easiest for me.
The first one i chose the 128Kbps MP3 as i really could not hear a difference between them, they were all shit.

But nice test, thanks for sharing!

[KonaKonaCube]

God im stick of hearing Tom’s Diner.. Anyway listening to these with a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M30X. Some were much easier to differentiate than others which i couldnt really tell. I even selected the 128kbps option TWICE. Yikes.

Fun how im the third to get exactly 50% correct lol.

Answers:

Spoiler

 

[Sharp_3yE]

1 hour ago, HanZie82 said:

Also got 3 out of 6 on my old and crusty Z5500.
But the JayZ and Katy ones were the easiest for me.
The first one i chose the 128Kbps MP3 as i really could not hear a difference between them, they were all shit.

But nice test, thanks for sharing!

Do not know what you mean by "frist one" Cuz it randomizes the order of songs and where the audio files are. But, if we are hitting on half of them at least then there is a difference we are hearing since there is 3 options. We may not something realize what the difference is at times though. Listen to the uncompressed a bit and the other ones to pick out differences and try the blind test again. 

With the Neil Yong 'There's a World' song i listen to the xylophone the most. It seems to ring better when uncompressed. Symbols and such often are fuller and more crisp to in songs with uncompressed files. It's hard to hear but it's there. 

[Sharp_3yE]

LOL DANG IT! I got so close. I was on a roll. Then I feel like I got cocky and didn't listen close enough. 4 our of 6. Last two wrong. But i picked 320 and not 128. I rarely pick 128. Def seems like it's easier to hear 128.

[Derkoli]

Can tell a tiny difference on jay-z and katy perry, but on the other's its a pretty decent difference between 128kbps and 320 kbps, but to WAV it isn't as big of a change, but there is a change.

 

 

More details: my entire system is over 150,000 USD. Close to 175,000 USD now. Check my signature for the full system run down, also listening at pretty quiet volumes as it is nearly 12AM, will have to re-do the test when I can listen at "normal" listening levels (about 85db-90db ish)

[Derkoli]

Just re-did it with the treble turned up slightly on my pre-amp, got a slightly better score.

[rice guru]

just did a few of these tests I can usually tell which is lossless or 320 kbps but it's more of a 4/5 kinda deal. it really depends oin the headphone the more boosted the highs the easier to tell. but I can tell between mp3 bitrates no problem. Best to do these tests though with music you are familiar with.

[Sharp_3yE]

20 hours ago, Derkoli said:

Can tell a tiny difference on jay-z and katy perry, but on the other's its a pretty decent difference between 128kbps and 320 kbps, but to WAV it isn't as big of a change, but there is a change.

 

 

More details: my entire system is over 150,000 USD. Close to 175,000 USD now. Check my signature for the full system run down, also listening at pretty quiet volumes as it is nearly 12AM, will have to re-do the test when I can listen at "normal" listening levels (about 85db-90db ish)

So, what do you use for audio files for music?

[Derkoli]

1 hour ago, Sharp_3yE said:

So, what do you use for audio files for music?

Aslong as it's above CD quality (16bit, 44.1khz SR) I'm not really bothered. But any CD rip's i have i encode straight into FLAC as it's easy to deal with, plus its consistent with the rest of my library, Mostly Tidal Hifi + Roon + my McIntosh MS500 for a streamer, which also has a NAS with 32tb of storage attached full of thousand's of CD albums plus some FLAC and DSD and MQA, which I use as a baseline for testing new gear as i know the music REALLY well, and i mean really well.

[spartaman64]

When I did it with my dt 990 pro on my work pc I got 1/6 but on my LG v20 I got all of them. I was confident on 5 of them and I was 60 40 between two for the toms diner one. Hard to tell since its just vocals. But honestly all 3 of them sound pretty good and I don't hear a big difference and I listen to most of my music on youtube

[Intrafinesse]

The question for all of you is:  Would you really notice the difference if you were just casually listening to music?

Would you really be saying "Wow, this sucks" when hearing the 128 vs the others?

 

 

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, Intrafinesse said:

The question for all of you is:  Would you really notice the difference if you were just casually listening to music?

Would you really be saying "Wow, this sucks" when hearing the 128 vs the others?

 

 

For most people the answer is no. Most people are still satisfied with FM Radio quality, or quality from Cassette Tapes, or Vinyl Records (yeah I went there).

 

128 Kbps MP3's and the like are totally sufficient.

 

However, many people will still notice the difference between 128 and 320 or 128 and CD/FLAC.

[Derkoli]

45 minutes ago, Intrafinesse said:

The question for all of you is:  Would you really notice the difference if you were just casually listening to music?

Would you really be saying "Wow, this sucks" when hearing the 128 vs the others?

 

 

If i've got music just casually on the background, I use my phone to control my McIntosh MS500 Via Spotify connect, so I can just walk around the house and control my entire system with my phone, Otherwise i just use Roon + TidalHifi, or my Chord Dave DAC for anything i have on foobar on my PC, or use my McIntosh MS500 to listen to music off of my NAS.

 

 

TL;DR, walking around the house doing stuff i really don't care what the source is aslong as it isn't full of like 5% THD

[rice guru]

4 hours ago, Intrafinesse said:

The question for all of you is:  Would you really notice the difference if you were just casually listening to music?

Would you really be saying "Wow, this sucks" when hearing the 128 vs the others?

 

 

I play games or brows while listening to music . and honestly no I wouldn't notice it. but if its e in bed with a pair of heapdhones on going through an album then I will notice it. 

[Sharp_3yE]

On 11/1/2019 at 12:38 PM, Intrafinesse said:

The question for all of you is:  Would you really notice the difference if you were just casually listening to music?

Would you really be saying "Wow, this sucks" when hearing the 128 vs the others?

 

 

yes and no. Depends. But there is a quality that will annoy me. Whether it's the hardware (bad headphones or whatever) that is bad and so things sound bad and I don't want to listen, or if the file is in poor quality i can notice if it's low. Ill deal with it if its fine and it's not much of an issue

 

BUT when you hear high quality stuff, why would you subject yourself to low quality? It just makes the listening experience bad. I want a good listening experience. That's one reason people see live shows, among other things.