Is there an audible difference? At AXPONA 2015 Legacy Audio provided an excellent opportunity for audiophiles to carefully compare several common playback resolution levels on a high quality system. The session was without agenda and provided a reality check for listeners.

Half-minute edits from three different selections from the catalog were chosen and played back over the reference grade and DAC preamp processor. The recordings provided were from the master files from the label. The files were imported into JRiver and handled in PCM format for continuous playback.

SuperTuxKart also supports playing different music files during the final laps of races. A 'final lap' variation of a track's music is just a faster version of its normal music. OGG to MP3 Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is compressed audio format.

Not intended as a blind test, the presentation offered the files for comparison purposes with an announcement of the resolution level at the start of each segment. Each musical selection began with a 192kHz, 24 bit file, followed by a 44.1kHz, 16 bit file, and finally a MP3 file at 320kbit/s. Legacy Audio V Speaker System at AXPONA 2015 For more information, check out the More than 200 listeners participated in the 8 sessions over three days.

Comments received at the show: “The 24 bit seemed to have more life.” “No real tonal difference, but dynamics are better at the higher resolution.” “MP3 was grainy on the treble.” “The air diminished when dropping below the 24bit version.” “The MP3 sounded smaller in soundstage. It was more difficult to separate the instruments.” “Not as big a difference as I expected, but definitely audible.” “The female vocalist in the background became more distant as resolution decreased.” “I would only pay the 24 bit cost difference on well recorded material and music I care about.” So there you have it. We welcome any listeners to post their thoughts relating to audibility of differences on the related discussion thread. Can you hear a difference between MP3, CD and higher resolution audio source material?

Many thanks to for hosting this demo and providing their results for us to share with our readers. AIX Records, Revel Speakers, Benchmark Audio 5.1 High Resolution Demo What do you get when you combine five Revel Salon2 speakers, audio equipment from Benchmark Audio and Oppo and music from AIX records? A state of the art multi-channel surround experience that will satisfy even the most critical audiophile. AIX Records put on quite the demo at AXPONA 2015 that even diehard two-channel audiophiles had to take pause for a listen. Check out what we thought about this demo experience. Read the Demo Report.

Well, over the years, I ran 2 sets of Internet “blind” tests on this. Back in Feb 2013, I did high-bitrate MP3 vs.

FLAC - no significant preference among 151 respondents. June 2014, comparison of 24/96 vs. Straightforward dithered 16/96 - 140 respondents again no significant preference.

These comparisons are all done in the tester's homes using their own equipment, with the test “advertised” on audiophile websites over 2 months. Music files used were of good dynamic range and “true” 24-bit source (for the 16-bit vs. 24-bit test). Furthermore, I looked at age stratification and did not see evidence of ability to identify a difference. Despite all the subjective claims, there really has not been good evidence than perhaps other than in a lab environment with specialized test tones, that in “real life”, there is a significant difference between high-bitrate MP3 encoding and the same source 16/44 lossless.

Nor is there evidence that 24-bit imparts any special quality over a reasonably dithered 16-bit version of the same thing. (Tests and results on my blog: archimago.blogspot.ca). Autodesk 3ds max design 2015 x64 rusifikator. Gene, post: 1082491, member: 4348 Why can't people just appreciate the demo and not have to over analyze? We don't know whether or not the participants knew what they were listening to at the time. Perhaps they just called it Demo A vs B vs C and then told them at the end. Blind tests are NOT without their own flaws and biases so let's not pretend that ALL blind tests are better than sighted tests.

I've participated and hosted both and found them to be fun, enlightening, and a lot of work. Indeed, if it wasn't billed as a scientific, double-blind study, then there's no reason to be disappointed that it wasn't one. No harm in demo'ing something you find interesting. Last summer an AVS forum member set up a test with three complete tracks, each in “high-rez (192)” and “CD (44.1)” quality. Participants were able to download the files and play them on their own equipment. No clue was given as to which file was high-rez, and which was CD; the poster even went to the trouble to make the file sizes identical. On my system I only identified one of the the high-rez tracks correctly.