Sound may be 'degraded' in various ways - last night I tweaked the PC setup a signifcant amount, and was listening to a never before heard CD, from Penguin Cafe Orchestra, with the telephone song - tremendous stuff, a joy to listen to. Was in a flow, put on another, unheard library CD of ABBA hits, mastered in 2010 ...
Unbelievable!! I 'ran' to the volume control, to turn it down ... this was mastering of the very worst kind, taking material I was very familiar with and smashing it to bits - I have the excellent original ABBA CD, which is superb to listen to. Knowing how it should sound, and hearing the brutal mangling that has taken place, this truly is "degraded" sound. Not distorted, but so unbalanced that it was hellish to listen to - I had had enough by halfway through ...
Unbelievable!! I 'ran' to the volume control, to turn it down ... this was mastering of the very worst kind, taking material I was very familiar with and smashing it to bits - I have the excellent original ABBA CD, which is superb to listen to. Knowing how it should sound, and hearing the brutal mangling that has taken place, this truly is "degraded" sound. Not distorted, but so unbalanced that it was hellish to listen to - I had had enough by halfway through ...
Richard, thank you for your input. In case of Bach/Bach1 comparison, there should be no reason for excess phase. One of the files is an original rip and the second one is a (mathematically) degraded file. Votes have been for the degraded file so far, with only one vote for the original rip.
Familiarity has a lot to do with preference, but even if you're used to listening to live performances, that doesn't mean that there can be such a thing as a perfectly accurate sound that should be preferred; if you listen to an orchestra playing in different locations, you will have vastly different experiences, but all are "correct". Likewise a recording could be distorted in some way, and yet not be perceived as any less realistic.
So it has been "proven" already! I call this unease as fatigue (but I have mentioned the different kinds of fatigue in many threads).
As I have just predicted, sceptical minds cannot be changed by whatever blind test result we are going to have. They want/need to experience it by themselves, which unfortunately is not possible.
Now my question, what is your objective from this blind test. Why you need to know who are the true golden pinnae and who are deaf gps. You know that this blind test cannot be more valid than what you have conducted. Are you trying to show that those who claims they can hear something are deaf?
Hehe may be I shouldn't have mentioned that. In my life I have never met anyone with better hearing "ability" than me. But I don't have any interest to prove that. It's okay if I'm considered deaf. My objective has been bigger than boosting ego.
This turns out not to be the case. A poorly structured test convinces no-one; a well-structured test is real data. Note that the positive results of the Hawksford test that RL ran were convincing to him. Coincidentally, two of us ran a separate test of Hawksford's files and also had a positive result.
It helps to keep your mind open. The purpose of a well-structured ears-only test is to separate what's real from what's imaginary.
Hi just saw bach files now via dropbox, this works better for the never IE11.
Also voted just after because one of them sounds good
Pavel is it possible to do the Clapton files in same location for download, then i can spare the Chrome install and what it might bring my at present good running Win7 setup.
Will try find time for Mooly's new poll over weekend.
Regards Ricky.
Also voted just after because one of them sounds good
Pavel is it possible to do the Clapton files in same location for download, then i can spare the Chrome install and what it might bring my at present good running Win7 setup.
Will try find time for Mooly's new poll over weekend.
Regards Ricky.
Last edited:
I have occasionally made mistakes with my amp which have left it putting out inaudible high frequency noise. It brings on a strong sense of anxiety. I can recognise it now.
This guy cycles through traffic apparently:
A Californian Blind Man Uses Echolocation To Ride A Bike | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building
Ricky, no problem
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgpf3bdydsda1xl/files.zip
Based on your sound impression you have sent me this night, it will be very easy for you to identify the files, it is like night and day.
Regards, Pavel
I would like to see properly prepared sound files, with level matching and trimming so they start at the same time.
Without this anyone can get a positive ABX test result even if the files are identical in every other way.
Without this anyone can get a positive ABX test result even if the files are identical in every other way.
Try Bach/Bach1. Absolutely same level, absolutely same time beginning.
I will not bother to preapare better files with Clapton music. The difference between them is 1000 : 1 in quality so it makes no sense to waste time with them. They are so dissimilar that better level matching was impossible.
Please try Bach/Bach1 in ABX, tell us the result and send me your preference, if you like - thank you.
Stuart, I agree with you completely. As you know, I have already provided you and Richard with three files that should be technically good enough for the well structured test. Today, I have modified the test files to have the same size, same time length and same time beginning of the sound. Amplitude matching within 0.01dB was of course retained. You and Richard were provided with a new link (dropbox) few minutes ago.
Two of the files were already used in another test here, the third is added to fulfill ABC test requirement.
I would like to ask kindly you and Richard to organize a well-structure test, as you both are profs in this. IMO it will be much more helpful than negative comments. I often have negative comments to tests as well, but then I am trying to provide members with useful data, like Bach/Bach1 comparison. I believe that you and Richard could bring a new quality to the test methods used in this great DIY forum.
Best,
Pavel
Last edited:
That is insufficient. In an email exchange, Pavel saw that I was able to distinguish them in about 30 seconds with no listening, independent of file length. Not that anyone here would do that, oh no, couldn't happen.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.