Listening Techniques and Training

2005-03-29 04:06:48

I would like to develop my ability to listen for quality in audio, and to be able to hear the different types of artifacts that occur in lossy audio sources with a high degree of accuracy.  I have just recently purchased a pair of Etymotic Research ER-4P Canal earphones, which are known by many to be among the most accurate headphones that one can purchase for under $500, perhaps.

Now that I have something with which I can accurately reproduce analogue sound for my ears, I'd like to know what I can do to train myself to become a better listener.  Are there some sample CDs that I can buy that can teach me about quality issues, or MP3 artifacts?  Is there a volume setting that might work better?  Is there software that can help me with this, maybe?

If people provide a lot of useful information here, perhaps this post can be made a sticky in the listening tests section.  The idea here is for me to be able to help contribute to the Hydrogen Audio and digital audio communities by contributing useful results to listening tests.  At this point, I'm still not able to hear a lot of the artifacts and anomalies that many more experienced listeners hear, so I don't have a lot of confidence that my listening results would be very useful.

AFAIK, my ears and hearing are fine, although maybe those years of DJing in loud nightclubs is starting to catch up to me!

Listening Techniques and Training

Reply #1 – 2005-03-29 04:27:49

i too have a very basic ability to hear artifacts, but i did find this site by ff123 very helpful in the development of my basic critical analysis ability.