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0 pointsEiriksmal10y ago0 comments

Did some brief Googling to see if I could participate in a blind listening test and hear the difference between 24- and 16-bit recordings. I found this instead [0], an even more interesting gap to see if you can hear the difference between 8- and 16-bit!

The source song, PSY's Gagnam Style, is the epitome of modern pop. I got a 3/10 on the listening test on a decent pair of Sennheiser headphones in a quiet room.

Some people are commenting that modern pop pairs well with 16-bit because of the heavy-handed mastering techniques and that older music thrives under 24-bits. Well, Audio Check offers the same 16 vs 8 test, using a Neil Young track from 1989... I couldn't fool myself into hearing any differences between the source WAVs at all and didn't even attempt to score the 10 soundbites.

[0] http://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_16vs8bit.php

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4 comments · 3 top-level

semi-extrinsic10y ago· 1 in thread

With these online tests, can anyone shed some light on how browser/plugin codecs come into play? I recently took Tidal's test to see if I could distinguish their lossless Flac option from 320 kbps AAC. Using a decent DAC and some Sennheiser HD202's I managed to score 0/10, which is somehow impressive.

rikkus10y ago

I believe in various tests no-one has been able to reliably discern lossless audio from 320kbps mp3, even though mp3 performs comparatively poorly at lower bitrates, compared to more modern lossy codecs.

88589510y ago

4/10. "Only slightly worse... than a random guess!"

I already knew that 24-bit vs 16-bit would be indistinguishable for pop music but I would not have expected that the same would go for 16-bit vs 8-bit. Or, well, I was kind of expecting it since otherwise the person who put this test together likely wouldn't have bothered.

However, I don't mind. I've never claimed to be "audiophile" -- a fact which is reflected by the inexpensive headphones I use :)

ddingus10y ago

This is amazing! Thanks for linking it. 8 bits... sheesh.

I'm impressed.

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