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Topic: 24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test (Read 21938 times) previous topic - next topic
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24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #25
For these kind of tests you need high dynamic range. Classical is possibly one of the genres with highest DR.

Numbers 2 and 3 of the test aren't very dynamic. The Goldberg variation is just a piano playing on the same level recorded from a distance with loads of reverberation, blurring the detail.

Let's put it this way, if you want to see a lot of detail of something you take a close look, you don't take a distance.

(BTW, can't we just measure the DR of an actual concert so we know what maximum DR is needed? I'm pretty sure the DR in a concert hall doesn't exceed 96db above the noise floor?)

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #26
I wonder if classical music is really the best for these tests. Classic recordings are often recorded with the mics standing far from the instruments, giving a rather undetailed sound IMO. I much prefer up close recordings. Like you find in jazz and pop music (excluding the overly loud recordings).

Not that I would expect a different outcome in this test. I just wouldn't pick classical music as example for the best recorded music.

Depends who you ask. If asking where high bitrate helps it is very often argued with classic music needing it. The label samples of this test are from sell these in HiBits exactly for that reason and are well regarded afaik. The piano sample at least it is a Bösendorfer. If that doesn't need its timbre preserved...
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #27
Let's put it this way, if you want to see a lot of detail of something you take a close look, you don't take a distance.

Not really. Low bit depth causes lower dynamic range so you need dynamic material. If the bit depth is too low you should hear distortion+noise (due to the 0.5 bits of dither used).

The files are highly dynamic, up to about 70 dB (difference between min and max RMS with 50ms window) except for Vivaldi, which is more like 45 dB. That is excluding the fade in/out silence.


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(BTW, can't we just measure the DR of an actual concert so we know what maximum DR is needed? I'm pretty sure the DR in a concert hall doesn't exceed 96db above the noise floor?)

More like 70 - 80 dB max.
"I hear it when I see it."

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #28
This test is invalid because you can't hear both tracks at the same time to compare. Aural memory is way shorter than you think.
Plus I find it extremely stressful to sit in the recliner listening to classical music, without seeing and knowing whether its a CD or SACD. Not surprising no difference heard under such duress. I prefer Pink Floyd anyway. The electric guitars sound more natural and organic in 24bits.
Loudspeaker manufacturer

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #29
So, "without [...] knowing whether its a CD or SACD" = "duress". 

The electric guitars sound more natural and organic in 24bits.

Re-read TOS#8.

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #30
Your sarcasm detector is broken..

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #31
Really? Well, English isn't my native language, so I don't always recognize it with the absence of [sarcasm] tag...

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #32
ajinfla seems to make a habit of posting in a way that it is difficult to tell what is his real point of view.

 

24-bit vs. 16-bit Audio listening test

Reply #33
This test is invalid because you can't hear both tracks at the same time to compare.


That has been proposed and tried as well.  It is very hard to obtain signficant isolation between the alternatives, so its not clear to the listener what the listener is listening to.

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Aural memory is way shorter than you think.


I think the Science of that is pretty well understood, with good recolection of sonic details extending for at least a few seconds.

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Plus I find it extremely stressful to sit in the recliner listening to classical music, without seeing and knowing whether its a CD or SACD.


I dunno. Would a hovering salesman help your relaxation? I hear that people are able to reliably determine all kinds of differences in audio stores...

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Not surprising no difference heard under such duress. I prefer Pink Floyd anyway. The electric guitars sound more natural and organic in 24bits.


What said only classical could be used?

One of the best publicized hi-rez related DBTs around by Meyer and Moran involved a mixture of classical and popular works.

I still think the best DBT was the one that the music industry unintentionally organized by mastering DVD-As and SACDs from a hodge podge of new and legacy recordings that themselves were limited by all sorts of different formats including analog tape. Eventually some objectivists fired up their FFTs saw the obvious band limiting and blew the whistle.  I can find no example of any subjectist reviewer pointing this out in a published review, so we must presume that none of them heard any differences.  That DBT must have extended over 10 years or more.