joatca;184813 Wrote:
> I was inspired by this thread to try some blind testing of my own. For
> those of you on Linux unable to test with the downloads mentioned
> earlier I thought I'd post exactly what I did so you can repeat the
> experiment for yourself with your own CDs.
>
> The method is below, but my results were inconsistent. I found that I
> could generally spot 128kbp MP3 immediately. I could hear a difference
> between the others, but I consistently failed to spot which was FLAC
> and which was MP3. Sometimes the MP3 was more "pleasing", sometimes the
> FLAC. This was quite disturbing. The only time I noticed a distinct
> improvement was with an older recording of a Bach prelude... with MP3
> the background hiss was much more distinct. Otherwise I couldn't decide
> which I preferred.
>
> Incidentally, I have an SB3, NAD 3020 driving Mission 762i speakers.
> Hardly audiophile stuff, but much better than PC speakers. Maybe I need
> better equipment... :-)
>
> ----
>
> 1. Select a track, rip into an empty directory with "cdparanoia
> <tracknum>". Also save the attached Ruby script into the same folder as
> "shuffle.rb" and make it executable with "chmod +x shuffle.rb". Edit it
> to set the titles, etc., at the top.
>
> 2. Encode the ripped file (which will be "cdda.wav") into whatever
> formats you choose. In my case I used lame and flac. I tried three
> different MP3 settings, the default ("lame cdda.wav cdda.mp3"), 320kbs
> CBR ("lame -b 320 cdda.wav cdda-320.mp3") and highest-quality VBR
> ("lame -V 0 --vbr-new cdda.wav cdda-vbr.mp3") as well as flac ("flac
> --best cdda.wav")
>
> 3. Run the script as "./shuffle.rb". This will update the metatags in
> the audio files in a random order, "Sample 1", "Sample 2", etc., and
> generate an "order.txt" file that you can examine later. Don't examine
> it yet!
>
> 4. Rescan your music collection, then browse to genre Test. You won't
> know which you are listening to until you go right and look, or read
> the "order.txt" file that the script generates.
>
> Hope someone finds this helpful...
I'm surprised there hasn't been more interest in this. A lot of people
would find this useful.
Nice work joatca!
--
Mark Lanctot
"It's like, you know, a New Age religion, but with better treble
response." - Jon Heal
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