Thursday, August 28, 2014

Can someone tell the difference between lossy and lossless music files?

Q: Can someone really tell the difference between lossy and lossless music files?

A: Why not conduct an experiment.

Pick a song you have on CD that you know well, and rip it to FLAC, 320 kbps mp3, 256kbps mp3, 128 kbps mp3 and 64 kbps mp3. Now start at the bottom and slowly listen your way up the quality ladder. It's easier to listen "up" and appreciate nuanced differences than to listen "down".

At what point do you stop hearing a difference between a file and the next one up in sequence? That's your bar. If it is really low, you can always practice to become a more discerning listener (develop those golden ears!).

Having said that, you should probably be able to tell the difference between a low bitrate mp3 file and a high bitrate mp3 file, but at bitrates of 320 kbps, it becomes astonishingly difficult to differentiate lossy from lossless, even with high-quality equipment.

This experiment works best when it is lubricated by a glass or two of single malt (or your choice of beverage).

Do it for science!

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