Subjective listening test

Which file do you prefer, by listening?

  • 04a

    Votes: 5 41.7%

  • 04b

    Votes: 7 58.3%
  • Total voters
    12
  • Poll closed .
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PMA

PMA

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pmacura.cz/audiopage.html
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#1
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#6
This is rather amusing 🙂 ... this is the first time I've used the "new" laptop to look at, listen to posted files, and the playback is having problems! I'm using MediaMonkey with very specific settings for best sound of the music from CD, and the first thing I notice is the software is taking a huge time to "soak up", input a file - takes ages to start playing!! Then, depending upon whatever, it goes into high speed replay of the track - chipmunk sound!! Note, the settings cause the full track to be buffered into memory at the start of playback.

I haven't looked at the format of Pavel's files yet, so it looks like I might have to "cheat" somewhat to sort this out - hence, my impressions won't be particularly valid for this exercise ...
 
#8
I'm sure there's no problem with the files, but MediaMonkey (MM) is what I'm currently using to get decent sound from the laptop - Windows Media Player is pretty dreadful in comparison, drops it back to transistor radio quality, so no point in using that - I'll need to play with MM, and get it working correctly with these files ...
 
#9
fas42 said:
...
Then, depending upon whatever, it goes into high speed replay of the track - chipmunk sound!! Note, the settings cause the full track to be buffered into memory at the start of playback.

I haven't looked at the format of Pavel's files yet, so it looks like I might have to "cheat" somewhat to sort this out - hence, my impressions won't be particularly valid for this exercise ...
Click to expand...
That's odd. In Cool Edit 2000 (my registered version from just before Adobe bought Cool Edit and dropped this stereo editor product) each file shows as 16bit 44,100 samples per second MONO (I don't think that gives anything away). Perhaps your player has a problem with mono files (if it thinks it's stereo it would play it at double speed), but most every sound player I've used does all the CD-and-smaller .wav formats correctly.

I played both through laptop speakers in a noisy environment, and not surprisingly, they sound the same. No doubt it will sound better when I'm at home playing it through a Real Amp and Real Speakers.
 
#10
Yes, it's curious, benb. I'll need to do some experimenting, possibly I've exposed a bug in MM, by using those settings. Just tried the default output plugin for MM, which is DirectSound, standard Windows, and no problems this time round - but, the sound is not worth much, rather tawdry and ordinary - not worth trying to pick any variations.

Getting the right settings makes all the difference to the output sound on this m/c, so I will do some exploring ...
 
#13
Unzip exists as part of Win 8.1, just Open the zip file, or click on it Windows Explorer folders window - copy the files within to another folder, say, and then proceed as normal.

Yes, there appears to a bug in the current MM - I converted the mono version of one file to true stereo, saved it, and then swapped between playing the mono and stereo - the latter was always fine, the former was OK the first time, but then went chipmunk every following time.
 
#16
Transfer function used. One of the files is "clean", the other is distorted.
 

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#17
I listened on a better (my 'office') audio system but still don't hear enough, if any, difference to have a preference. Perhaps you should have added a "no preference/can't tell the difference" option in the poll. Maybe my home system will be more revealing, or maybe I just can't quite hear the difference.

But I did ... well, perhaps I shouldn't say what I did until after the poll closes.
 
#19
I listened using the latest Foobar version on a clean W8.1 install. Draw your own conclusions 😉

Maybe I was just consistently pressing the wrong button (opposite to what I wanted).
 

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#20
benb said:
I listened on a better (my 'office') audio system but still don't hear enough, if any, difference to have a preference. Perhaps you should have added a "no preference/can't tell the difference" option in the poll. Maybe my home system will be more revealing, or maybe I just can't quite hear the difference.

But I did ... well, perhaps I shouldn't say what I did until after the poll closes.
Click to expand...

Thank you, probably I should have added the option "can't tell". But it is fine to say it the way you did, in the forum. It helps as well.
 
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