Agreed, and in this instance it's really pretty easy to do a double-blind test, or do away with the partner entirely and have a valid single-blind test.
1) use the same original source (24/192), and downsample to get the 24/96 and 16/44.1. That way you know that any difference isn't down to different masterings. 2) tag the three tracks the same way, so that the SB player display and web ui do not give any indication of which is which. 3) generate a playlist with the three tracks in random order. Better yet, allow for a playlist of up to 6 or 10 tracks, so that each version has a chance of being played more than once. This will permit the listener to identify tracks as "different" when in fact they are exactly the same. There are a couple different ways you could do this. a) put the three tracks in a playlist multiple times and activate shuffle mode b) use the Random playlist plugin. To make sure you only get those three tracks you could either (i) tag them with a unique genre, and limit the random play to that genre, or (ii) temporarily tell LMS that the folder(s) with the three tracks is your entire music library. 4) start listening. Listen each version of the track in its entirety, or jump back and forth between the tracks as much as you like. When listening, only pay attention to what # _on_the_playlist_ you are listening to. Keep notes if you like. 5) after you've listened enough, write down which tracks on the playlist sounded better / deeper / wider / more relaxed / more constricted / brighter / etc. 6) go to the LMS web ui and drill down for each track to see whether it was 24/192, 24/96, or 16/44.1. Compare to your list in #5. Voilà. No doubt this protocol can be improved upon, so feel free to suggest any. I've used it several times and have been struck by how seldom I hear a difference. Could be my aging ears, could be my unrevealig mid-fi system, could be my room acoustics, could be the recordings themselves, could be there really is no audible difference. But at least I can rule out expectation bias and the power of suggestion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=95885
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