Lossless Audio - can you hear the difference?

9 replies
BE
Offline
beosince
Bronze
Posted February 26, 2021 at 18:28 GMT
#2152718

Hi fellow Beoworlders,

I recently came across this website: http://abx.digitalfeed.net

It allows you to check if you can hear the difference between lossless and compressed music on your audio systems. The test is blind and takes a good few minutes. The goal is to match two reference samples (one compressed and one lossless) to the target sample X. At the end you get the result of how many tracks you identified correctly. 

Personal Verdict: With my setup I do not need lossless streaming (I tired on BeoLab 5 and Beoplay H6 second gen). The differences are minute, and without the direct comparison I could not tell you if the track is lossless or AAC 320 kbps. I also found that it is hugely dependent on the song if there is a discernible difference between lossless and compressed.

B(
Offline
BeoJosh (archived2)
Bronze
Posted February 26, 2021 at 20:41 GMT
#2152719

What an interesting test--thanks for sharing. I'll look forward to taking it.

Without yet having done so, all I can say is that--to my ears--I was quite surprised what a difference moving from Airplay (AAC) to Deezer Hifi (FLAC) made on my B&O speakers. Everything sounds fuller and more detailed on all my speakers, and it most especially "woke up" my flex speakers.

B(
Offline
BrianP (archived2)
Bronze
Posted February 26, 2021 at 22:56 GMT
#2152720
I switched from Deezer Premium to Hifi a few month ago to test it out.

I experienced a much richer/fuller sound with a lot more details. The difference is not big but I find it worth spending 50 pct. more for the Hifi subscription.

I have Beolab 5, A9 2nd Gen and H9 3rd Gen.
T.W.G
Offline
T.W.G
Gold
Posted February 27, 2021 at 07:47 GMT
#2152721

There's no technical information what type of file you'll be listening, too. Do you really listen to e.g. an 320kBit/s MP3 vs. an uncompressed 16Bit PCM Wav file? Or do they just present you a 256kibt/s AAC vs. 256kbit/s MP3 file?

A little bit strange... and therefore not usable as a true reference for comparison.




C(
Offline
chartz (archived2)
Bronze
Posted February 27, 2021 at 08:39 GMT
#2152722

I cannot hear the difference between CD and Spotify. Let alone lossless.

I thought I could, but in the end I gave up on testing.

carolpa
Offline
carolpa
Bronze
Posted February 27, 2021 at 11:37 GMT
#2152723

chartz wrote:
I thought I could, but in the end I gave up on testing.
In this test are only FLAC files, if you choose A or B you get FLAC.

So are you tested or directed?

 

CU
Offline
Curly
Bronze
Posted February 27, 2021 at 12:54 GMT
#2152724

/forum/general-discussion-and-questions/a-day-with-a-bluesound-node-2i

BE
Offline
beosince
Bronze
Posted February 27, 2021 at 12:57 GMT
#2152725

TWG wrote:

There's no technical information what type of file you'll be listening, too. Do you really listen to e.g. an 320kBit/s MP3 vs. an uncompressed 16Bit PCM Wav file? Or do they just present you a 256kibt/s AAC vs. 256kbit/s MP3 file?

A little bit strange... and therefore not usable as a true reference for comparison.

I have done some digging and found that this test uses the same samples Tidal used for their test (theirs is not available anymore). The only thing different is the better statistics and the direct ABX comparison. The uncompressed format is AAC 320 KBPS (the highest quality compressed sound format on Tidal). The compressed format is Lossless (FLAC/ALAC). All samples are taken directly from Tidal. 

carolpa
Offline
carolpa
Bronze
Posted February 27, 2021 at 13:27 GMT
#2152726

Beosince98 wrote:
I have done some digging and found
after looking at the website sources that only FLAC seemed to be used.

or
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