How do I get better at hearing?

[fabius]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but... as I mentioned in the Topping EX5 thread, I've got my first DAC/amp and am listening with my HD650s and everything sounds fine... about just as fine as it did before! As I said there:

But having just tried listening to these six test audio files at NPR I couldn't tell the difference between any versions and ended up guessing randomly, scoring 1 out of 6. Even knowing which is which, 128Kbps MP3 sounds the same as the uncompressed WAV to me (through the EX5 and my HD650s).

Presumably you all can tell differences between the three different formats?

So, my real question is, can I train my ears to hear better? And if so, how?

At the moment my it feels like my ability to taste differences in wine - only the extremely obvious things. Which is fine, and means I don't require specific and/or expensive wines to be happy! Learning more about wine might make life more difficult! But, given I listen to music a lot more than I drink wine, I'd like to get better at hearing it.

 

[DanielT]

Why should you train to hear differences? It can be expensive for the wallet if you then have to buy HiFi after you have practiced.
(I'm kidding a little, but a little truth in that it probably is).

How good are you now?

What results do you get ?:

Blind Testing a 1 dB Level Difference

Discover the smallest difference in level (dB) you can reliably hear.

www.audiocheck.net

 

[Zensō]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but... as I mentioned in the Topping EX5 thread, I've got my first DAC/amp and am listening with my HD650s and everything sounds fine... about just as fine as it did before! As I said there:



Presumably you all can tell differences between the three different formats?

So, my real question is, can I train my ears to hear better? And if so, how?

At the moment my it feels like my ability to taste differences in wine - only the extremely obvious things. Which is fine, and means I don't require specific and/or expensive wines to be happy! Learning more about wine might make life more difficult! But, given I listen to music a lot more than I drink wine, I'd like to get better at hearing it.

Blind tests have shown that in many cases audiophiles are imagining differences when, in fact, they don’t exist. My advice is to not worry about hearing the extremely subtle differences between things such as high bitrate codecs and DACs. Focusing too much on trying to hear things that don’t matter will not increase your enjoyment of music (actually, it will likely result in the opposite).

This might be helpful:

What We Hear

FIRST SOME UPDATES: This is a promising sign. I’ve managed to publish another article in less than a week and it’s a big one! Since last wee...

nwavguy.blogspot.com

 

[DanielT]

Focusing too much on trying to hear things that don’t matter will not increase your enjoyment of music (actually it will likely result in the opposite). In any case, blind tests have shown that in many cases audiophiles are imagining differences when, in fact, they don’t exist.

That's it, enjoy the music instead but at the same time many are curious (me too) and want to see what you can do.
Sports, competition gene (maybe) that is triggered ?.What do I know. As long as you can just relax and listen to music without thinking about how the Hifi stuff sounds.

 

[fabius]

How good are you now?

What results do you get ?:

Blind Testing a 1 dB Level Difference

Discover the smallest difference in level (dB) you can reliably hear.

www.audiocheck.net

Blind tests: 3dB difference is very easy. 1dB difference I was only about 50% successful on.

 

[fabius]

Blind tests have shown that in many cases audiophiles are imagining differences when, in fact, they don’t exist. My advice is to not worry about hearing the extremely subtle differences between things such as high bitrate codecs and DACs. Focusing too much on trying to hear things that don’t matter will not increase your enjoyment of music (actually, it will likely result in the opposite).

Sure. I've long since been content that I'm more than happy with high (or often average) bit rate MP3s rather than lossless files. A big saving in hassle, bandwidth and storage!

But if there's no audible difference between my seven year old laptop's headphone socket and this "budget" £350 DAC/amp's output then what are we all doing here?

 

[Zensō]

But if there's no audible difference between my seven year old laptop's headphone socket and this "budget" £350 DAC/amp's output then what are we all doing here?

Mostly just having fun debunking audiophile myths, I think.

Seriously though, if you really want to improve sound quality, focus on transducers, EQ, and room treatments.

 

[bigjacko]

One way people are able to hear things you can't hear is to use magnifying glass. People might turn up the volume and try to hear what they think is defect, or play it multiple times, or some other tricks. Even Amir with lots of experience and actually trained hard, use some kind of tricks like at the end when songs fade away.

 

[tomtoo]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but... as I mentioned in the Topping EX5 thread, I've got my first DAC/amp and am listening with my HD650s and everything sounds fine... about just as fine as it did before! As I said there:



Presumably you all can tell differences between the three different formats?

So, my real question is, can I train my ears to hear better? And if so, how?

At the moment my it feels like my ability to taste differences in wine - only the extremely obvious things. Which is fine, and means I don't require specific and/or expensive wines to be happy! Learning more about wine might make life more difficult! But, given I listen to music a lot more than I drink wine, I'd like to get better at hearing it.

You are on the best way. Try, listen, test.
Dont get fooled by that superman hearing hearos. Its much harder than they like to tell you. Blind they have the same problems. I tried at home high bitrate mp3 vs flac. No change.

 

[ahofer]

I can usually distinguish bitrates lower than 320k, but between there and CD quality is much tougher. There are some ‘tells’ in strings and cymbals that help you get 60-70% between 320k and CD, but you really have to focus on it. I do better with classical samples than pop/rock.

I really don’t believe many people can do a lot better, apart from those who train hard on those ‘tells’ (‘trained listeners’), just like sommeliers learn to use color, opacity, viscosity, and memorize a host of natural flavors and scents in order to have a shot at blind-identification of terroir, grape and vintage.

Of course, if you really want to have “golden ears”, you have to drop a small fortune on constantly rotating gear, use a lot of nonsense (with respect to audio reproduction) words like ”Pace”, “Rhythm”, “timing”, ”black background”, and “air”, and pronounce merely accurate reproduction as “unlistenable” and “harsh” or “grainy”.

The latter method is much easier on your skills, but much harder on your wallet, and you can’t let anyone test you, for obvious reasons.

 

[raif71]

If only we have his bionic ears, imagine the differences that can be heard

 

[ahofer]

If only we have his bionic ears, imagine the differences that can be heard

They were made by Wilson

 

[raif71]

They were made by Wilson

I'm wonder if an AI robot equipped with sensitive sound sensors will be able to pick up the differences in sound from audio gears and then articulate them in terms of musicality, sound stage and other flowery sound descriptions, hmmm

 

[DanielT]

Blind tests: 3dB difference is very easy. 1dB difference I was only about 50% successful on.

One thing that I have started to think about more since I took up my Hifi interest again a little over a year ago is: When is it audible?
It has helped me. It provides a guide to concentrate on what is important, what makes an audible difference. Hear difference we do, it's what we have ears for. The question is only when we hear this difference? And if we like we then hear. Here for example, do you like loudness functionality ... or not .... and it is definitely something you hear a difference if you press the loudness function on an amp.

Should you use Fletcher-Munson loudness compensation?

I know many are familiar with the Fletcher-Munson or equal loudness curves. In a nutshell: “The Fletcher Munson Curve contains a set of graphs that show that when you listen to music at a lower volume, mid-range frequencies will be sound more prominent, whereas high and low frequencies will be...

audiosciencereview.com

More tests, if you want to try:

How Much Distortion Can you Hear?

An interesting test probably posted before although it didn't come up in a search. Also try difference sources ie ear phones vs speakers.

audiosciencereview.com

 

[mkt]

Practice? My kid (theater sound professional) has used this.

Moulton Laboratories :: Golden Ears

 

[Bill Brown]

Harman's How To Listen software

Hi, Amir posted this link a few days ago: http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/ This software created by Harman and realsed in beta version in 2011 is a set of training exercices to test auditory capacities of EQ settings. According to Sean Olive, to be a trained listener you need to reach...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Pdxwayne]

Blind tests: 3dB difference is very easy. 1dB difference I was only about 50% successful on.

Same site has other tests you can try too.

Several members, including me, can do 0.5db using that site. I could even do 0.2db simple abx test. I do wonder not able to sense 1db is typical or not. Maybe with practice you will do better.

I have a thread that tracks my listening tests. The first post mentioned my results from the same site. You can compare your results with mine to see where you stand. See

Tracking my listening tests

I am using this to track my listening test results as posted in other threads. Online blind tests using my Samsung Note 9 with headphone. 0.5db - pass 0.2db - can't do up 5c pitch - pass 2 ways, 10ms - pass Screenshots in...

www.audiosciencereview.com

You can also see all other tests I have done. Some still have files to download and you can try those too if you like.

 

[Berwhale]

You should watch Amirs's video about blind tests and listener training...

 

[Ron Texas]

Training your hearing will not make music more enjoyable. It might make it less enjoyable. Training may help you to design audio gear or write reviews or not.

 

[Purité Audio]

Your hearing is only going to go in one direction.
Keith