3 ms·
When mp3 encoding was a new thing, I downloaded an AB tester to see what settings I needed to use. I blind compared compressed music of my own choice using the
by isaacfrond 3y ago
When mp3 encoding was a new thing, I downloaded an AB tester to see what settings I needed to use. I blind compared compressed music of my own choice using the headphone that I would be using it on.
It turned out that a bitrate of 112 Kbps was completely transparent for me. In the meantime there were forum wars on whether or not 320 was sufficient or not.
The experience humbled me. I cannot hear anything near as much as the pros (apparently) can.
- js2 3y agoFor others who want to try their hand, or ears, rather: https://www.audiocheck.net/ https://www.audiocheck.net/ And: https://abx.digitalfeed.net/ https://abx.digitalfeed.net/ The mp3 bitrate tests are on this page: https://abx.digitalfeed.net/list.lame.html https://abx.digitalfeed.net/list.lame.html And be sure to read the classic essay on 24/192: https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
- simonsaysso 3y agoI did a similar experiment on myself. For songs I knew very well on good headphones, I could reliably distinguish up to 320 kbps on MP3 and 256 kbps AAC from the lossless copy. For songs I didn’t know as well, 128 kbps AAC was usually transparent. My takeaway from the experience was that the bitrate didn’t really matter above 128 Kbps AAC. This was me paying super close attention and trying to find flaws in the encoding, not actually listening to music. I periodically rerun the test in myself as I get better equipment (laptop DACs are quite good now, for example) and get similar results. Age will be a limiting factor soon as it takes my hearing.