How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?

[sasQwax Animated Egg Find all posts View Profile Close sasQwax]

Many listeners cannot hear the difference between uncompressed audio files and MP3s, but when it comes to audio quality, the size of the file isn't (ahem) everything. There are plenty of other ingredients to consider, from the quality of your headphones to the size of the room you're sitting in to, well, your own ears.

Can you hear the difference?

Take this quiz to find out.

Interesting - I listened to it on my trust Sennheiser HD650s and got 2 out of 6! Pretty poor, really. Oddly, the Jay-Z was the one that seemed most obvious to me. Perhaps because I'm more used to listening to hip-hop records? I don't know. The other one I got right was Katy Perry which pretty much blows my first theory out of the water completely!

Need new ears, obviously

[eine Lonely Jelly Find all posts View Profile Close eine]

Interesting. Easier than I thought. 4/6 on the WAVs. Suzanne Vega and Neil Young foxing me.

[Xann Ugly Custard Find all posts View Profile Close Xann]

We have tone generators at work.

In my 40s, my hearing loses it at 14K.

Down by about a third from its starting point.

[SirSlim Chocolate Rain Find all posts View Profile Close SirSlim]

Take this quiz to find out.

Interesting - I listened to it on my trust Sennheiser HD650s and got 2 out of 6! Pretty poor, really. Oddly, the Jay-Z was the one that seemed most obvious to me. Perhaps because I'm more used to listening to hip-hop records? I don't know. The other one I got right was Katy Perry which pretty much blows my first theory out of the water completely!

Need new ears, obviously

You're asking me to listen to Coldplay? Perhaps I should cut my ears off first...

[sasQwax Animated Egg Find all posts View Profile Close sasQwax]

ha - I'm not, NPR are!

I have to admit, I did that one the quickest and didn't care I got it wrong

[pitch 80s Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close pitch]

Interesting. Easier than I thought. 4/6 on the WAVs. Suzanne Vega and Neil Young foxing me.

Exactly the same for me.... but the last 4 are a better test I think.

[eine Lonely Jelly Find all posts View Profile Close eine]

Is anyone else in pitch and mine's club?? We have a membership test and soon we will have a name, membership card and secret knock.

[alanmck Jazz Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close alanmck]

Is anyone else in pitch and mine's club?? We have a membership test and soon we will have a name, membership card and secret knock.

it won't have to be a secret if only you can hear it.

[RedX Electric Prunes Find all posts View Profile Close RedX]

5/6 (listening with Beyer Dynamic headphones on my laptop)

Got JayZ wrong - first time I've consciously heard one of his tunes

[babycart Baldhead Growler Find all posts View Profile Close babycart]

1/6. I got Katy Perry right

[effi_deep Lonely Jelly Find all posts View Profile Close effi_deep]

i got 320kps on all of them

[giantchicken Ugly Custard Find all posts View Profile Close giantchicken]

Two out of six - Neil Young and Katy Perry....reckon I might have done a bit better if I'd actually answered the question asked (which one is the uncompressed WAV?) rather than my own (which one do you prefer?) - evidently I like a bit of compression (although analogue is best) - my school exams followed a similar course....

[Yr Ynys Hot Butter Find all posts View Profile Close Yr Ynys]

4 / 6 on a crappy laptop and standard issue SkullCandy headphones. Lost out on Jay Z and Sue V.

Don't know if there's any relevance, I struggle to hear our (apparently) whiny dvd player or grasshoppers and crickets out the garden in the summer. So I might have just been lucky 4 times!

[candiman Electric Prunes Find all posts View Profile Close candiman]

Thru laptop speakers: 1/6

I'll try the Skullcandy headphones that'll make it better: 0/6

The old B&W DM3s via a Behringer / USB: 2/6

My old ears are shot I think. Struggled to tell the difference but generally seemed to plump for 320kbps.

Listening to Coldplay nine times was even more of a struggle - and there's a lot of sibilance on that clip isn't there?

This has probably saved me some money - was thinking of taking up the special offer to upgrade to Deezer's HQ output thru Sonos. Won't bother now.

[babycart Baldhead Growler Find all posts View Profile Close babycart]

I liked the Coldplay best