How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?

[restorer-john]

Came across this fun little test and first time around I got 2 out of 6.

Was disgusted with myself, got out my AKG-702s and plugged them into the PC and got 5 out of 6 with the 6th one being 320kb instead of wav.

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

Be honest and tell us how you did

 

[Blumlein 88]

We've had a thread about this sometime in the last few weeks. I originally picked 5 of 6 using headphones over a laptop way back in 2015. I did it again and scored 5 of 6 correctly. The last time it was the Jay Z where I flipped the 320 compressed file and wav. I think that is also the one I missed the first time.

Here is the other thread.
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/can-we-trust-our-ears.3884/

 

[restorer-john]

Jay Z is the one I flipped around too. Probably the source is a mess to start with...

 

[Blumlein 88]

Or maybe they made a mistake at NPR. Maybe we are right.

 

[Peter Leyenaar]

4 out of 6 with AKG headphones straight out MacBook Pro

 

[decoRyder]

3 out of 6, but I didn't find the source material too good to begin with, they could have done better with that.

 

[daftcombo]

With AKG K701 I have better results with random answers.
I often choose 128 kbps as the best...

 

[decoRyder]

The conclusion for me here is hearing a difference will depend greatly on quality of the recording, and the type of music.

 

[invaderzim]

I've done that one before and I found I did best if I picked the track I didn't like as much. Maybe it is my headphones but most of the uncompressed ones were too detailed and harsh for me.

It might be as others have said that some music doesn't lend itself as well to that much detail.

I found the same thing with some of my music when I ripped it all to uncompressed files. Some just sounded better as an MP3 so I switched those back. Maybe some artists weren't meant to be heard that clearly. A bit like some people looking better in soft focus photos.

 

[Poiuyt23]

5 of 6. Neil Young got me because of the recording artifacts during the final swell of music. Wasn’t sure if the one with or without the static was hi def. DX3 Pro into Oppo PM-3s.

 

[Peter Leyenaar]

I'll repeat the test, once I get my phone amp/dac .

 

[Poiuyt23]

I gotta be honest I have a pair of Sony MDR-1A phones that I pair with an Onkyo HD200 dac at my office and the first time I did the test (about the time the page went up as I recall) and I did no better than guessing, which truth be told I was doing.

 

[Juhazi]

Many nice tests online here! https://www.audiocheck.net/index.php

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