More > JRiver Media Center 22 for Windows

Instead of a subjective listening test

(1/3) > >>

sorepinky:
Instead of a subjective listening test, why not do something really interesting like taking the left channel of any high-res track like a 192/24 FLAC and replace the right channel with the left channel (i.e. make it "mono"), down-convert only the right channel to a lower res format like 48/16 and invert that. Then sum left and right channels to find any difference then replace say the right channel with the difference, discard the left channel and look for the right channel on the DSP Studio Analyzer to see if it is empty?  Could even change the scale of the Analyzer to make it about 1dB full scale, or amplify the difference to something that will fit the standard scale.

Assuming it's possible, perhaps similar could be done to compare SoX resampling.

Addendum:  Maybe I'm being naive in supposing that this is even possible (running different sample rates and bit depths at once).  Perhapes a way around such a limitation would be to up-convert the down-converted channel back to the original format before inverting one of them and summing them.  At least then, there would be no argument that the file was not at some point of lower resolution.

Alobar:
With storage becoming so cheap I am personally not using any new mp3 at all but still use mostly 16/44.1 ape. Some of my music I have downloaded from HDtracks at 24/96 but I am not sure if that is wasted money over a CD purchased from Amazon or somewhere else, often for much less cost. Very interested in V.2 of MC's listening test that can compare 16bit/44.1kbps to 24bit 96kbps or 192 for that matter. My suspicions are that the grand old CD is pretty close to the top of the bell curve and it would take extraordinary ears and a great system to gain much SQ simply from higher resolutions, but a test would be quite telling. One thing about HDtracks V a CD of the same music is I can never really know if it is from the same master or not so that is where MC's listening test would tell all about resolution, by insuring the comparison IS from the same master. Then of course the questions still arise if the HDtracks hi rez downloads are from better masters or not and whether to buy that over the CD. Can't imagine a test for that!
Keep up the good work JRiver!

blgentry:
In my very, very limited testing with friends, all of them have been able to hear differences between 24/192, 24/96 and 16/44 .  My testing was done with a tiny number of people, in a non-scientific way.  It was all done with the Pono player and it's "Pono Revealer", which allows you to switch, on the fly, between resolutions as you choose.  JRiver was involved in this effort (Pono Revealer).

Brian.

sorepinky:
I've sat in hi-fi rooms with small groups of people and as soon as one of them says that a certain piece of optical cable (or whatever other more expensive thing was just swapped in) provides more "air", soon the rest tend to agree.  I just do this: ::)

Better than such "power of suggestion" sittings and even better than double blind tests IMO is the idea of inverting and summing to find any real difference and play the difference.

Here is someone I know who has built a circuit to invert and sum to find a difference between cheap and expensive interconnects.  Play his test tracks through to see what I mean: http://www.halfgaar.net/interlink-comparison

I played them with my PC speakers turned up to 100% and hear nothing for the end portion of the ones excluding the "sabotaged" cable.  Haven't tried it with decent headphones yet.  But it suggests quite strongly (even with the limitations set out on his page) that these wild differences that people claim to hear may in reality be nothing much.

tyler69:

--- Quote from: sorepinky on February 06, 2017, 01:35:57 am ---I've sat in hi-fi rooms with small groups of people and as soon as one of them says that a certain piece of optical cable (or whatever other more expensive thing was just swapped in) provides more "air", soon the rest tend to agree.  I just do this: ::)

--- End quote ---

Well I think that it's not impossible to hear a difference when a component is swapped.
But on topic: would it be possible to add functionality to this feature (or implement it as a new one with a different Name) in Order to compare two manual selected tracks from the library? If so, Media Center should try to allign those tracks.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page