Decided to try ABX'ing 24/96 vs 16/44 copies of Skyfall. These are as purchased, so not the 24/96 downsampled.
Foobar -> Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS -> Lexicon LEP1 IEM with stock filter (which is an AKG K3003)
At first, I couldn’t tell the difference at all doing the practice A and B. The DacMagic XS has audible hiss so it’s not the most transparent DAC but finally I was able to find a passage where there was a difference. This is where I had the songs looping.
A - feel the Earth move and *then*
B - feel the Earth move and then
A had a bit more attack, seemed a bit more emphasized whereas B was smoother. More “natural” possibly although I have never heard Adele live/unamplified to know what her voice truly sounds like. Even then, it often required 4 or 5 passes back and forth between X and Y until I could be sure.
By about half way through the test the ABX’ing got easier and I started to wonder which track was the high res track, A or B. I was blinded to the file names and I felt that there was a paradox. A seemed to have more detail but B actually sounded more natural in the sense that I felt as A was emphasized compare to B as opposed to B being subdued compared to A. Again, “natural” being an estimate since I don’t know what Adele sounds like in real life.
After a while, it was easy to detect the difference. Basically would just need XYXY and I would get it. But then it got a bit harder to hear the difference.
At trial 14, my wife asked me something. I took off my earbuds and when I put them back on, I just couldn’t hear a difference anymore. I took off my earbuds and put them back in. I then could hear the differences again but it didn’t seem as prominent of a difference as before and finished the test. I am not sure if there was a subtle difference in how the earbuds were put in my ear or if I lost my ability to discriminate the differences once I was no longer focusing on those six words from the song.
Conclusions
1) Differences are incredibly slight. I would not have found either rendition to be poor nor would I be able to identify the ABX if I only had one guess during testing.
2) Given the ability to click on ABXY as needed, not rushing, and only clicking when a difference wasn’t heard, it is possible to get good scores. At one point the differences seemed to be night and day but this wasn’t maintained.
3) Note that I said difference. At first I thought A was 24/96 since the sharper sound must be higher resolution but as I listened more, I thought that maybe it was aliasing and it was actually 16/44. In the end, I would still characterize them as different not good vs. bad
4) In any case, speakers offer the biggest difference. Get the biggest ones you have space for . Those are clearly different sounding.
Next step will be to try my Topping D50s and Geshelli amp to see if that makes it easier to distinguish between the two.
————
foo_abx 2.0.6d report
foobar2000 v1.6.7
2021-09-12 12:35:56
File A: 01 - Skyfall.flac
SHA1: 1c9672b1703fb51669dedfae655328bb574bb113
File B: 01-Skyfall.flac
SHA1: 8b3bdd707c075330b85a396a2e526292df3d894e
Output:
Default : Headphones (2- CA DacMagicXS 1.0) [exclusive], 24-bit
Crossfading: NO
12:35:56 : Test started.
12:38:42 : 01/01
12:40:02 : 02/02
12:41:01 : 03/03
12:41:51 : 04/04
12:42:14 : 05/05
12:42:44 : 06/06
12:43:13 : 07/07
12:43:31 : 08/08
12:43:51 : 09/09
12:44:10 : 10/10
12:44:26 : 11/11
12:44:47 : 12/12
12:45:22 : 13/13
12:45:34 : 14/14
12:47:52 : 15/15
12:48:37 : 16/16
12:48:37 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 16/16
p-value: 0 (0%)
-- signature --
53d293236fdbf646a3dd2d0b61f9b4361602ef45
Foobar -> Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS -> Lexicon LEP1 IEM with stock filter (which is an AKG K3003)
At first, I couldn’t tell the difference at all doing the practice A and B. The DacMagic XS has audible hiss so it’s not the most transparent DAC but finally I was able to find a passage where there was a difference. This is where I had the songs looping.
A - feel the Earth move and *then*
B - feel the Earth move and then
A had a bit more attack, seemed a bit more emphasized whereas B was smoother. More “natural” possibly although I have never heard Adele live/unamplified to know what her voice truly sounds like. Even then, it often required 4 or 5 passes back and forth between X and Y until I could be sure.
By about half way through the test the ABX’ing got easier and I started to wonder which track was the high res track, A or B. I was blinded to the file names and I felt that there was a paradox. A seemed to have more detail but B actually sounded more natural in the sense that I felt as A was emphasized compare to B as opposed to B being subdued compared to A. Again, “natural” being an estimate since I don’t know what Adele sounds like in real life.
After a while, it was easy to detect the difference. Basically would just need XYXY and I would get it. But then it got a bit harder to hear the difference.
At trial 14, my wife asked me something. I took off my earbuds and when I put them back on, I just couldn’t hear a difference anymore. I took off my earbuds and put them back in. I then could hear the differences again but it didn’t seem as prominent of a difference as before and finished the test. I am not sure if there was a subtle difference in how the earbuds were put in my ear or if I lost my ability to discriminate the differences once I was no longer focusing on those six words from the song.
Conclusions
1) Differences are incredibly slight. I would not have found either rendition to be poor nor would I be able to identify the ABX if I only had one guess during testing.
2) Given the ability to click on ABXY as needed, not rushing, and only clicking when a difference wasn’t heard, it is possible to get good scores. At one point the differences seemed to be night and day but this wasn’t maintained.
3) Note that I said difference. At first I thought A was 24/96 since the sharper sound must be higher resolution but as I listened more, I thought that maybe it was aliasing and it was actually 16/44. In the end, I would still characterize them as different not good vs. bad
4) In any case, speakers offer the biggest difference. Get the biggest ones you have space for . Those are clearly different sounding.
Next step will be to try my Topping D50s and Geshelli amp to see if that makes it easier to distinguish between the two.
————
foo_abx 2.0.6d report
foobar2000 v1.6.7
2021-09-12 12:35:56
File A: 01 - Skyfall.flac
SHA1: 1c9672b1703fb51669dedfae655328bb574bb113
File B: 01-Skyfall.flac
SHA1: 8b3bdd707c075330b85a396a2e526292df3d894e
Output:
Default : Headphones (2- CA DacMagicXS 1.0) [exclusive], 24-bit
Crossfading: NO
12:35:56 : Test started.
12:38:42 : 01/01
12:40:02 : 02/02
12:41:01 : 03/03
12:41:51 : 04/04
12:42:14 : 05/05
12:42:44 : 06/06
12:43:13 : 07/07
12:43:31 : 08/08
12:43:51 : 09/09
12:44:10 : 10/10
12:44:26 : 11/11
12:44:47 : 12/12
12:45:22 : 13/13
12:45:34 : 14/14
12:47:52 : 15/15
12:48:37 : 16/16
12:48:37 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 16/16
p-value: 0 (0%)
-- signature --
53d293236fdbf646a3dd2d0b61f9b4361602ef45