Well.. I've been busy again, but I see I haven't missed anything
I'm completely unclear what I need to do next.. perhaps my equipment is not suitable.. maybe we shouldn't be listening to hi-res formats at all with todays speakers.
I ran a loopback test, just for the sake of completeness:
RMAA: M-Audio Revolution, 32bit(float), 96kHz.
Frequency Response, dB: +0.12, -0.06
Noise Level, dBA: -93.9
Dynamic Range, dBA: 91.2
THD, %: 0.0048
Intermodulation, %: 0.016
Stereo Crosstalk, dB: -94.9
I also spent some time listening to Seaside Rendezvous (Queen), and The Thin Line (Queensrÿche). Well, I wasn't very surprised that I couldn't hear any difference between 96 and 44.1kHz, because:
a) they are not exactly great sounding recordings, and
b) I could only get one channel off the dvd (right channel would only give me noise)
But then I thought, well, if my headphones are causing audible problems because of the high frequencies, why can't I notice it here? There certainly is a plethora of high frequencies in these two files. (Actually I'm suspicious that the top half of the frequencies are just a mirror image of the bottom half, hmm.. )
Hearing lovely_1 after these files was like listening to chocolate melting (dark chocolate)
I was wondering, too.. In case I am just a lucky person, how many trials would be needed for me to have a fairly good chance of getting a total of say twenty 12/12s over the whole test period if I was just guessing.. maybe sshd could tell me?