Digital audio listening test

[Colin Fraser]

Here's a little quiz for you guys then...

I ripped roughly 20 seconds of audio off a professionally produced CD by a
well known German band...
(I'm open to suggestions for a 'real music' candidate for the same listening
test)

I converted it to 256 kbps mp3 and 128 kbps mp3, then decoded these to wav
files.
I also transferred it digitally to minidisc, then back.
For good measure I also encoded the minidisc transfer to 256 kbps mp3.

All transfers were done in the digital domain.
The final results are in 16 bit stereo, 44.1kHz wav files.
The 5 files are zipped up at http://www.doorsbydesign.demon.co.uk/wavs.zip
It's an 18 Meg file, so modem users beware.

Anyone care to match the 5 files to the 5 encoding processes ?
The prize is deep respect for having 'golden ears'...

If you can't hear the difference, then thank god you don;t need to spend a
fortune on hi-fi gear.

Colin f


----- Original Message -----
From: "Goddard, Duncan" <goddard.duncan at mtvne.com>
To: "Synth DIY" <synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 7:12 PM
Subject: RE: minidisc


> >>>BTW Wavelab bit depth calculation proves the MD records all 20 bits
onto disc.<<<
>
>
> ? how does it do that, then?
>
> most of my misgivings re this format are subjective; I didn't bother to
learn all about atrac coding when it first appeared, I read as far as "and
this part is thrown away because this other part is happening at the same
time and it's louder so no-one will notice if that first part's not there
anymore and that, boys and girls, is how we get 16 bits down to 4.....".
> "bollocks," I thought to myself, "but it'll be ok for walkthings". then
when I got one and listened to some familiar stuff, it sounded like it had
been remixed in a subtle but significant way. but as I said before, the very
thing that makes it an inferior reproducer (and I'm being picky) make it
useful for live recordings- it seems to filter out the things that your ear
would filter out, which I suppose was their point. it's just that as a
reproducer, it filters out too much.....