How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?

[Cupe]

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.

Test yourself here: http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2 ... io-quality

[AlexJ]

just did this and i knew which one was the 128 5/6 times

out of all 6 i either picked the lossless or 320 with an even 3 each.

granted what ive seen alot of people do with these sort of tests is overboost the volume on the 128 to make it sound louder. most people can hear it and pick it automatically. 10/10 times when someone is in a club you can hear the 128kbs track against 320 as they try to boost the volume to match 320 levels (and then overboost where it cracks out) or its too quiet when you know fader is maxed. every dj should learn to gain by ear and not by level.

[Narukami]

Tried this twice. Once on speakers and another on headphones.

First time, I didn't pick any 128kbps tracks but only picked the 320kbps instead. I only got 1 question right, which was the Suzanne Vega track.

Being unhappy with my noobness, I tried it again. Second time I picked 4 tracks right, one 320kbps and one 128kbps. Ironically enough, it was the Suzanne Vega track where I chose for 128kbps.

I'm not an "audiophile" or a pro myself but I can usually tell when a track is 128kbps. I find that the distortion is much more apparent on songs with a lot going on.

[LabRat]

i think anything below 256kbps is pretty obvious to pick up. most people i've played music too can't really tell the difference between 320mp3 and wav. if we're playing on some pretty big shit then i'm sure some people will notice but i think majority will be unaware. as long as they can sing to it they're fine lol

[Cupe]

Fuck having to play on big rigs all the time and only being able to use wav

Imagine how many usb's you'd need

[Mitch]

Fuck having to play on big rigs all the time and only being able to use wav

Imagine how many usb's you'd need

My collection is a lot of AIFF now. Only need 3 64GB sticks (all have the same music on them, just backups)

[LabRat]

Fuck having to play on big rigs all the time and only being able to use wav

Imagine how many usb's you'd need

You don't need to play with wav files all the time on big rigs. To some people you can tell a difference. 320's can pump just as much. My old residency has a half million dollar sound rig. I played mp3s and wavs and there wasn't that much of a difference tbh

[Mitch]

Just did the test. Got the acapella one and coldplay wrong, but picked the rest. I was using headphones not through my soundcard.

Might redo it at some stage using soundcard with headphones/monitor speakers to see if i can pick them all

[LabRat]

I might have a look at this some point tomorrow. Interested to see if it's a gear thing too

[Kodiak]

I did surprisingly bad.... Although I never picked the 128kbps.... It was always a toss up between the wav and 320kbps.

[BeatLeSS]

My old residency has a half million dollar sound rig. I played mp3s and wavs and there wasn't that much of a difference tbh

Half a million dollars wasted by the sounds of it mate.

Think of a sound wave travelling smoothly through the air, that's the full wav quality. What an MP3 does to it is begin to chip away at those smooth edges, as you begin to lose all of the sound.. What happens when it begins at the speaker and then travels a large distance? This chipping at the wave form is very apparent. Punters don't care, because they don't know better, or simply don't have access to any better.. Put them infront of a quality system with quality music and let them go next door to the same equipment and music but worse quality music and tell me where they are gonna end up.

Listen to this if you wanna learn a bit about the quality of audio.. This guy knows what's up. Shrugging it off shouldn't be an option, you're letting yourself and everyone around you down.

[Cupe]

Massive difference in detection here is going to be related to the device you're listening on