Blind Test: mp3 vs. 24bit

Hello everyone! The results are out. The 24-bit was chosen correctly about 53% of the time, which means 47% of the answers were wrong. This is coin-toss territory. You can read the full summary here: 

That is very close to be fair.

Wow, that’s close.

When you consider the fact that the MP3 versions were between 220~260kbps, and not the highest available, 320kbps, then you can see the disparagement of MP3 for what it’s worth.

As I said 12 months ago, it would appear that once you get above 192kbps it becomes very difficult to distinguish MP3 from anything higher.

Even all the way up to 24/96!

I find these A/B tests futile. The real test, at least for me, is to listen to a familiar song/album at the higher resolution, then the same at the mp3 (or whatever). Your ears will tell you which is the lesser quality - the song won't sound "right", maybe a little fuzzy or maybe missing some detail. This approach also works with streaming - stream a familiar song and I can hear a subtle difference vs a cd, etc, although equipment may play a bigger role in this than the actual resolution. just my 2 cents.

I did get all three choices correct, but even on my home system the differences were close. Focusing on a specific voice or instrument was how I decided on the difference between the tracks. My impression is that the recording quality has usually been a more significant factor for sound quality than the resolution of the file.

Also, one difference that seems more apparent to me when comparing hi-res files vs MP3 files are spatial cues and "air" around voices and instruments. These are more audible to me when listening via speakers and less so via headphones.