Ah, no. The process was to run an 8192-pt. peak-holding FFT over the whole file. The offset for next analysed frame was 1/16th of the frame size, so 512 samples, for a huge overlap. Otherwise, because of the window function we could miss out peaks that are mostly outside the window, at the edges.
I think this is the key - a specific headphone with a crazy peak in that exact region - boosting this signal and then GS being in that 0.1% of individuals able to detect something in that region.
But it isn't.
There are many "real" instruments with high harmonics, not to start with the infamous cymbals...
Sharur, who apparently passed the test as well, used a LCD-5, which has good treble extension, but nothing crazy high as well.
Yes, up to now there is only the consensus that there are differences between these two files down to -45dB above 20 kHz. I struggle to believe that this could be audible.
Again, he did some proof of concept type of thing, but the differences are nowhere there where all the audiophile nonsense claims them to be, like bigger soundstage, liquid midrange, more "texture" or any of that.
Since the Chord Dave has a filter very similar to this sharp one used, I woulnd´t doubt that he might be able to repeat this between two real DACs.
If this is due to filter response differences and his hearing, there is no qualitative difference in sound quality at a basic level vs cheap good DACs. Some of the cheap DACs have multiple filters as well. So is there a sound quality bonus of any kind vs his expensive DAC? I'm guessing no. I'm thinking if he had 96 khz source files he could not detect his DAC vs a $400 SMSL. What he did is impressive and appears he is being honest in all of this. Even he says in a couple years he may not hear the difference any longer. So this shows filters with different response at the edge of audibility can be heard. I could likely do the same if I compared a normal filter and one rolling off at 10 khz.
Why do people still bring his name up? His videos are just crap where he often shows how little he understand about audio and how good he is at bullshitting, he's just a troll and nothing else. I mean he recently released a feel-sorry-for-me-video where he talks about him being diagnosed with baldness while showing his head that's almost as far from bald as possibility possible, is that not the definition of a troll?
Again it´s -46dB above 20 kHz, so if your hearing is that good, be welcome to pass the ABX test as well.
I think we should focus the discussion on the pertinent facts and data, not persons. I, personally, dislike GoldenSound quite a bit, but he apparently did something nobody expected to be possible and it is not completely clear how he did it, so it is interesting to discuss it and elucidate the scientific and technical basis of it.
Again as I noted very early in the thread, controlled blind testing by Meridian/MQA folks showed audibility of different DAC filters. This was peer reviewed and published at AES.
Those differences are not above 20kHz. In this case they are and on top of that very short lived. Music is something entirely different than test tones and the 20kHz content is part of music that has content below 20kHz as well. To actually perceive a 20kHz you really need to crank the volume up (with test tones > 20kHz) to at least 80dB SPL with young ears.
