Can you really hear the lossy codec? - a public blind test (RESULT)

[Krunok]

Yes. I knew it was lossless after I tried to vote. My main concern was that I immediately preferred it to B and wondered if every time I switched back I still preferred A only because I had decided it was better initially. Maybe ABX software would have helped.

I really appreciate all the people on this site sharing such practical information on our not so practical hobby.

No need to be concerned, that's how it works with all of us.

And yes, ABX software would help.

 

[restorer-john]

6 people voted for A, and 6 people voted for B. So basically people are just blindly guessing...
Conclusion is that we generally cannot tell the difference between AAC 256kbps and Lossless.
The pursue of 24bit+ audio and higher bitrate than 48khz is probably not worth it as well.

Your conclusions are wrong.

The 6 people who voted for A were 100% correct and the other 6 people were not.

Do the lossless test I just linked to in another thread. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality.4272/

 

[Soniclife]

Yes. I knew it was lossless after I tried to vote. My main concern was that I immediately preferred it to B and wondered if every time I switched back I still preferred A only because I had decided it was better initially. Maybe ABX software would have helped

You can still do the test with ABX software, knowing the result does not change anything. If you have not done this sort of test before I'm sure you will find the experience and result fascinating.

 

[Larsene]

Fun experiment, and nice discussion generator.

I'm not an expert, but I think there are many possible logical conclusion you can take from this experiment, i.e

1) no audible difference from the two samples;

2) the limits of the audio equipments used to decode and transduce your audio files ( you're moving from bits to I-V to air pressure variations) completely mask any audible difference;

3) the a part of your sample is has got used to "compressed audio reproduction", a part to the "uncompressed"

4) ...

So, my suggestion is why not extending the test to a wider group of people, collecting more data about the experiment ( asking for decoder used, amplification chain, transducer ( may be suggesting to use headphones to avoid room effects...) and see wat happens.
Probably that would be not the first experiment of such kind, nor the last but it would add some fun...

Regards

Al

 

[Ayreonaut]

In the past I have done abx testing of my own, comparing wav files to mp3 (lame) at various bitrates and vorbis. Vorbis is better for speech at very low bitrates, and would be good for small file sizes with audio books. Using headphones, I found that mp3 at 128 kbps was inferior to wav, but at bitrates above that, it became difficult to identify. Mp3 128 is good enough for listening in the car, and other noisy environments. Mp3 (lame) V0 is sufficient for headphone listening in a quiet room. Perhaps you could identify the difference between a good mp3 and wav with a hi-fi speaker system by paying attention to imaging. For that reason I archive my music with FLAC.

 

[donald24]

Hearing your testfiles was interesting, but I found no evidence to prove the difference.. But like someone said, it's easy to compress electronical stuff for the algorithm. Would be way more interesting with vocal stuff!

I believe that during my tests I could every time tell the difference from anything encoded when listening to "white flag" from dido. That Glockenspiel-part sounded different everytime, I could even hear it even on loudspeakers in my living room.
I compared it only to 320 kbps mp3 LAME I encoded years ago from the same CD.
But I believe even AAC wouldn't do magic when it comes to complex scenes, but anyways, what is the cost of storage nowadays anyways? Go lossless all the way! No need for compression and discussions left.... But wait, THEN there are those streaming services right?

In 2014 Spotify sounded muffled all the way through. You didn't even need ABX mechanisms to hear that. Highs were clearly missing. I've then switched to Deezer, which was not lacking of that. AND switched back this year, problem has been fixed, or deafening-age has been reached...

I've seen people that ask, how to achieve that sound, like that they've heard in that sound-studio in tweaking the compression-algorithm. You won't, forget it. You need a set of good speakers, a good amp that goes with it, and then the sound follows!

I'll bet that the day comes, that one streaming service starts to do lossless, and if only one does, everybody will follow for sure....