@kevn
Fifth, he is unable to tell apart music files of low and high resolution, and based on this lack of ability, determines that measurements in performance testing is all that is needed to determine what is heard, and what is not.
Hey partner, you are pretty wrong about both of those but especially the first one:
1. You have not told us about any listening tests you have passed of high-res vs CD. That NPR test has a headline about high-res audio but the test is actually CD vs 128k and 320kbps MP3. It kind of says so in the text:
"Many listeners cannot hear the difference between uncompressed audio files and MP3s, but when it comes to audio quality, the size of the file isn't (ahem) everything."
To be sure, I analyzed the javascript/html and confirmed what I just said. Here are the file names for one of the tests:
theres-a-world-wav.wav
theres-a-world-128.mp3
theres-a-world-320.mp3
Pretty clear, right?
Keep in mind that a high-res vs CD test can NOT be done in a browser. The browser uses the standard audio pipeline in the operating system which in the case of Windows, Android, MacOS and iOS, resamples all audio to a fixed sample rate/bit depth. By default this is 48 kHz. I know because my team at Microsoft wrote the audio stack. And I have done a ton of testing showing the limitation of default playback on phones.
To play high-res audio intact, you need to use a dedicated audio player and of course a device capable of producing better response than CD. Your phone running the above test in a browser is NOT capable of doing this.
So no way, no how you have run a test of high-res vs CD that you have shared with us. If there is another test, then by all means, post it so we can examine it.
2. I have most definitely pass double blind tests of high-res vs CD. Unlike you, I have the documentation to prove it. I post that earlier in the thread but you must have missed. Here it is anyway. Note that these are public challenges put forward for the public to run with the assumption that no one can.
First is Archimago (a great blogger) who created a clever test. He took a high-res file, brought its bit depth down to 16 and then converted it back to 24 bits with some countermeasures added to it. This made it impossible to tell the files by analyzing them using computer software. I passed this test:
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.3.2
2014/08/02 13:52:46
File A: C:\Users\Amir\Music\Archimago\24-bit Audio Test (Hi-Res 24-96, FLAC, 2014)\01 - Sample A - Bozza - La Voie Triomphale.flac
File B: C:\Users\Amir\Music\Archimago\24-bit Audio Test (Hi-Res 24-96, FLAC, 2014)\02 - Sample B - Bozza - La Voie Triomphale.flac
13:52:46 : Test started.
13:54:02 : 01/01 50.0%
13:54:11 : 01/02 75.0%
13:54:57 : 02/03 50.0%
13:55:08 : 03/04 31.3%
13:55:15 : 04/05 18.8%
13:55:24 : 05/06 10.9%
13:55:32 : 06/07 6.3%
13:55:38 : 07/08 3.5%
13:55:48 : 08/09 2.0%
13:56:02 : 09/10 1.1%
13:56:08 : 10/11 0.6%
13:56:28 : 11/12 0.3%
13:56:37 : 12/13 0.2%
13:56:49 : 13/14 0.1%
13:56:58 : 14/15 0.0%
13:57:05 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 14/15 (0.0%)
As you see, 14 out of 15 right which is almost perfect.
Notice how I ran a lot more than the 6 trials that you ran in the MP3 test as to get probability of guessing down to 0.0%, not the usual 5%.
I not only passed this test, but I created a video on how I managed to do that. It required knowledge of signal processing of what you lose when going from 24 bit to 16 bit, and of course, training required to be able to hear such small differences. Here is the video which again, I post earlier:
https://youtu.be/0KX2yk-9ygk
In there, I show results of other difficult double blind tests I have passed -- again with appropriate documentation.
As a bonus, here is another public test created by my friend, Mark Waldrep of AIX records. The challenge was put on AVS Forum and I managed to pass it while no audiophile dared to even try:
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.3.2
2014/07/10 21:01:16
File A: C:\Users\Amir\Music\AIX AVS Test files\Just_My_Imagination_A2.wav
File B: C:\Users\Amir\Music\AIX AVS Test files\Just_My_Imagination_B2.wav
21:01:16 : Test started.
21:02:11 : 01/01 50.0%
21:02:20 : 02/02 25.0%
21:02:28 : 03/03 12.5%
21:02:38 : 04/04 6.3%
21:02:47 : 05/05 3.1%
21:02:56 : 06/06 1.6%
21:03:06 : 07/07 0.8%
21:03:16 : 08/08 0.4%
21:03:26 : 09/09 0.2%
21:03:45 : 10/10 0.1%
21:03:54 : 11/11 0.0%
21:04:11 : 12/12 0.0%
21:04:24 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
So please don't imply you can pass such tests and I can't. Facts speak clearly state otherwise.
In friendship - kevin.
Right back at you my friend.....
