abx

Can you hear a difference between dac+amp path with 92dB vs. 78dB SINAD? Quite a lot has been said here about “audibility” of SINAD, or existing/non-existing sound differences between amplifiers or DACs. Quite often we forget to evaluate SINAD of the whole audio chain consisting of a DAC, power...

I'm trying to use Foobar's ABX comparator plugin (v. 2.1), but it's not working for me. Specifically, track A (and corresponding X or Y) is out of sync with track B (and remaining X or Y). If I'm trying to compare a specific snippet of a track, I can tell which is which just by where the track...

Hi ASR, This is my first post, although I have been scrolling and enjoying the content on this site for several years now. Please let me know if there's anything wrong with the way I've posted etc and I will modify it. So here goes. My goal is to blind test a few DACs I have, to see if I can...

This thread is meant to once and for all settle the age-old question on whether different non-broken DACs have a "sound" or if all DACs sound the same! :cool: ...just kidding - those debates will probably never end. :p Let me start by providing the link to the ABX test. Note: There are 16...

Priors: 1. For many years, I'd been certain that I could hear clear differences between bit-identical playback means (e.g., different USB cables, streaming vs. local playback, different software players and their bit-identical settings, etc.) - something that has bugged me no end over the years...

Howdy folks, thought I should share an interesting study I came across, which was published just now: Listening tests in room acoustics: Comparison of overall difference protocols regarding operational power...

There are requests to record outputs of two different power amplifiers and prepare a listening test with such recorded files. I have decided to answer the challenge again and recorded files from 2 different class AB amplifiers, loaded with real speakers. One of the amplifiers has about 6 times...

Hi everyone, I have wondered, as I'm sure many of you did, if my system could play music well enough to let me distinguish between lossy and lossless streaming music. I'd tried comparing my FLAC CD rips to the same album streaming on Spotify (I don't have Tidal/Qobuz) and honestly couldn't hear...

AB(x) testing of Power Amplifiers I had to do it. Once again I was convinced that I hear a difference in a sighted test, so I had to prepare a properly level matched A/B test. Two amplifiers, both of 2 x 50W/4ohm rated continuous sine power. conservatively designed class AB, with...

I wanted to find out if I can hear a channel imbalance of 0.5 db and 0.25 db when listening with headphones. In order to simulate a channel imbalance I recorded some sounds with a mono microphone, duplicated the track in audacity and exported it with identical left and right channels, +0.25 db...

Thought I'd start a new thread about this. For quite some time I've been intrigued by blind testing, and whether that's the end all be all when it comes to audible differences in audio (or preferences). A couple of years ago, when I was still struggling in the passive quagmire, this led me to...

High Resolution Audio: Does It Matter? By Amir Majidimehr [Note: This article was published in the January 2015 issue of Widescreen Review Magazine. This is a slightly revised edition.] Yes! Thought I give you the short answer first in case you are impatient like me. If you have read my...