Hi Res Audio Listening Test.

[Mooly]

This one could be interesting. I hope so anyway.

There has been much discussion in other threads on whether true high resolution formats are worthwhile. Opinions seem to be going all ways on this.

Myself, well I'll be honest and say its an area I've never looked into. I use CD and am happy with the results.

So what have we got here ? Well there are three files, all of which are short at around 7 to 8 mb and each plays for around 25 seconds. Although all are of the same piece they start and end and fade in and fade out at slightly differing points. So all will show as a slightly different file size. In other words you 'gotta listen (how many times have I said that before... are those the Cray computers I hear firing up now 😀).

Anyhow, there should be a definite hierarchy to these three files in terms of quality and resolution.

See what you think and, and the question is... try and pick out which you think is the file of highest resolution. As ever, there is a poll with three choices. Just vote for which you think is the highest quality file. No more clues will be given other than to say that none of these files are from CD.

FILE X

FILE Y

FILE Z

 

[Dude111]

Ahhh what your saying then is all 3 files are from an analogue source 🙂 (Even though this is a digital connection we might still hear a difference)


EDIT:

I like the sound of Y the best (File Y) -- I play them with VLC (Only thing I have that plays FLAC (Ah man!!))

I like dropbox.... If you wanna DOWNLOAD the file instead of stream it,all ya gotta do is change DL=0 to DL=1 @ the end of the link 🙂

Thanx Mooly for the clips..

I had to convert them from flac to WMA (128k) as nothing was heard (Sometimes when I play flac files with VLC it deosnt read them right,all I hear is silence)

 

[rayma]

See what you think and, and the question is... try and pick out which you think is the file of highest resolution.

File X sounds best (on my Cambridge PC speakers), with Z the worst. The X and Y are close, though.
Not sure how good my FLAC player is.

 

[davym]

Not really enough going on for me to get a good impression (no percussion etc) and it's not to my taste but i thought file Y might just be a little bit more open so that's what i voted for. My good lady though it was file Z but there's really not much in it.

I have some 24/96 downloads but it's only with the likes of Dire Straits and Pink Floyd i can really hear any improvement. Oh and that dour git Sting, he's another musician who is also an audiophile.

 

[Mooly]

Ahhh what your saying then is all 3 files are from an analogue source 🙂 (Even though this is a digital connection we might still hear a difference)


EDIT:

I like the sound of Y the best (File Y) -- I play them with VLC (Only thing I have that plays FLAC (Ah man!!))

I like dropbox.... If you wanna DOWNLOAD the file instead of stream it,all ya gotta do is change DL=0 to DL=1 @ the end of the link 🙂

Thanx Mooly for the clips..

I had to convert them from flac to WMA (128k) as nothing was heard (Sometimes when I play flac files with VLC it deosnt read them right,all I hear is silence)

I've found Dropbox about the best for this kind of thing. And thank for giving them a listen. I have to convert files to WAV or similar to play them on my main system (unless I couple the PC to it). I know a lot of you folks don't have to do that though 🙂

File X sounds best (on my Cambridge PC speakers), with Z the worst. The X and Y are close, though.
Not sure how good my FLAC player is.

Again, thanks for giving them a listen. I'm hoping this is one chance we might get to actually get some valid results without the usual 'you know what' going on 😀

Not really enough going on for me to get a good impression (no percussion etc) and it's not to my taste but i thought file Y might just be a little bit more open so that's what i voted for. My good lady though it was file Z but there's really not much in it.

I have some 24/96 downloads but it's only with the likes of Dire Straits and Pink Floyd i can really hear any improvement. Oh and that dour git Sting, he's another musician who is also an audiophile.

Lol 😀 Interesting comments. Coming up with suitable tracks is always hard but I think these should cut it given careful listening.

 

[fas42]

Karl, still using my very poor laptop sound to judge, unfortunately - my ranking is Y, Z, X ... Z and X sound fairly close.

 

[forr]

X

 

[Dude111]

I've found Dropbox about the best for this kind of thing. And thank for giving them a listen. I have to convert files to WAV or similar to play them on my main system (unless I couple the PC to it).

Ahhhh so you have to as well....

It will be interesting to see when you tell us what is what with these 3 files 🙂

 

[zedn]

I vote for X>Y>Z.

 

[davym]

I cant tell the difference most of the time and i bet most others cant either. In my opinion high resolution downloads, especially of stuff like Led Zeppelin, are usually a waste of money, space and time.

I wonder if the results will support this. Thanks for your time and effort in putting these tests together Karl. It adds to our knowledge and you might help save someones bank balance too 🙂

 

[Mooly]

Very interesting on the voting front. Thanks folks 🙂

Frank, that's no problem (laptop). Just listen as best you can.

I cant tell the difference most of the time and i bet most others cant either. In my opinion high resolution downloads, especially of stuff like Led Zeppelin, are usually a waste of money, space and time.

I wonder if the results will support this. Thanks for your time and effort in putting these tests together Karl. It adds to our knowledge and you might help save someones bank balance too 🙂

Thanks for being honest about what you hear/don't hear. I am hoping these files are better than average though. They should be.

 

[wintermute]

I've participated in some of mooly's tests before, but this is by far the hardest! At this point I have to say I can't hear any difference with any of the tracks. I thought with my new headphones (not great ones but ok ones) that It might make things easier, but no.

I also usually try to pick differences on things like piano and percussion. so I'll blame the track 😀

Tony.

 

[Mooly]

Thanks for listening Tony. (I know, finding tracks to please everyone is hard 😉)

Well today I had another very good listen via headphones (Sony MDR-V7) and my dedicated headphone amp. The source was a Dell laptop and I was using the line out feed.

I listened many many times (and of course I know which is which) and have to say the differences are not very apparent. In fact I was having a very hard time hearing any difference at all but then suddenly I think I latched on to it. It seemed repeatable and not imagination but it is very subtle.

 

[vuki]

Y sounded a bit more relaxed.

 

[Mooly]

Thanks for trying them. I see we've picked up a couple more votes in the last few hours. Good good good 😉

 

[jplesset]

Listening on my office system, Kef 103.2, I honestly don't hear enough difference to vote.

 

[Mooly]

No problem, and thanks for trying. Not hearing anything different is still a very valid result. Nice office system with KEF's 🙂

 

[jplesset]

Owned an audio store when they were current, and always wanted a set. Found on eBay years ago... I have several sets of the 101s with subs elsewhere, and kept the 103.2s for my office. Working from home, I like having decent sound. They do take up a lot of space on my desk though...

 

[Smiley 09]

Microscope EARS

Hello "The Sharp Ears Fellas" Let's Play The Game . . .

I listened many many times (and of course I know which is which) and have to say the differences are not very apparent. In fact I was having a very hard time hearing any difference at all but then suddenly I think I latched on to it. It seemed repeatable and not imagination but it is very subtle.

Mooly,

Can You please Specify the exact org. Disc, File, CD Title, Performance, Performer - Title of this Classical release, Yours the UPSAMLED Files are source From ?,
Since these files are NOT HiRes File/s in any possible way, Can You be so kind and upload also the orig. source file which was ripped from WhatEw. orig. source CD, MP3 File be it totally untouched ( Unprocessed-Unconverted) in any way only cut-edt to the very same sequence length as is the Y file.?
Better jet, please upload the real native HiRes files if You have them instead of these LoRes - upsampled and heavily digitally processed ones ?


Best
RGDS

Andreas

 

[Mooly]

Hi Andreas,

I'll give more info when the test has run its course. You don't seem impressed by the quality of these. They are certainly not upsampled MP3's or CD's.

Why do you think they are ?