Well, I'm home! Downloaded the WAV version and I cannot tell you what a surprise this is. I'm sure it are my cables, I'm using Gros Michel instead of Cavendish...
Listening on my desktop -> RME Digi9652 -> RME ADI-8 AE -> Pioneer amp -> PCM DB-1S (old non active version).
Listening on my desktop -> RME Digi9652 -> RME ADI-8 AE -> Pioneer amp -> PCM DB-1S (old non active version).
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Gros Michel if most suitable for classical music, I believe. Cavendish has a more more modern feel. 😛 I don't know which variety I used, whatever was just outside the front door.
My first reaction was: this is a waste there is nothing to hear.
I put the four tracks in a playlist and put it on random. I was able to pick it out the same one a few times by listening to the decay.
I don't want to mess it up for anyone else but I did do a comparison with Audio Diffmaker and then looked at the wave in audacity.
What I was hearing was -18db and -24db down.
Great, now we need to try to attach banana plugs to each end of a rubber tube filled with banana puree.
This is definitely a difficult challenge. My older ears took the test in the morning, when all was quiet.
@Pano, have a look at your DM.
I encourage everyone to take the challenge. Just download Foobar's ABX plugin, find a pair of good headphones or speakers and get the ball rolling.
Highly recommended. 👍
@Pano, have a look at your DM.
I encourage everyone to take the challenge. Just download Foobar's ABX plugin, find a pair of good headphones or speakers and get the ball rolling.
Highly recommended. 👍
Yes, and the initial report is: Result = It's difficult. Only one person has picked the originals as favorites, and that was during the beta testing, he hasn't done these samples. And even he thought they were very close.
We do need more listeners!
In other tests it's basically random as far as I can tell, but if there is a tend, it's in favor of the bananas. Maybe I can figure out how to post a table of the results, without giving away the key.
Given the materials used, it should not be so close. The results so far are surprising. Bananas and mud are not great conductors, they do act as series resistors. But maybe that's all there is to it, banana and mud (and in the older tests, potato) are simply like putting a resistor in series, meaning that other than changing the signal level, they don't do much. From my measurements, they may be more like a resistor with a small capacitor in parallel, but still very hard to hear.
For all of you who have not tried this - Don't be afraid to listen, you might learn something.
We do need more listeners!
In other tests it's basically random as far as I can tell, but if there is a tend, it's in favor of the bananas. Maybe I can figure out how to post a table of the results, without giving away the key.
Given the materials used, it should not be so close. The results so far are surprising. Bananas and mud are not great conductors, they do act as series resistors. But maybe that's all there is to it, banana and mud (and in the older tests, potato) are simply like putting a resistor in series, meaning that other than changing the signal level, they don't do much. From my measurements, they may be more like a resistor with a small capacitor in parallel, but still very hard to hear.
For all of you who have not tried this - Don't be afraid to listen, you might learn something.
OK! I have made a table of results, the big reveal will come on Christmas day. 
Be sure to get your listening in before Father Christmas brings you a sack of coal for being naughty. Test your audio skills and your knowledge.
Santa will keep all results anonymous, but feel free to post your results if you want to share.
In the interest of making a results grid it helps me if you guess which file is which material. If you can't tell a certain version from another, that's OK, just let me know and it will not go into the grid as a definite result. If you just say something like file XYZ was worst, I'll assign that to mud, if file ABC is best, that will be assigned to original. Cheers.
Happy listening. 🙉👂
Be sure to get your listening in before Father Christmas brings you a sack of coal for being naughty. Test your audio skills and your knowledge.
Santa will keep all results anonymous, but feel free to post your results if you want to share.
In the interest of making a results grid it helps me if you guess which file is which material. If you can't tell a certain version from another, that's OK, just let me know and it will not go into the grid as a definite result. If you just say something like file XYZ was worst, I'll assign that to mud, if file ABC is best, that will be assigned to original. Cheers.
Happy listening. 🙉👂