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1/3 of People Can't Tell 48Kbps Audio From 160Kbps
An anonymous reader writes "Results of a blind listening test show that a third of people can't tell the difference between music encoded at 48Kbps and the same music encoded at 160Kbps. The test was conducted by CNet to find out whether streaming music service Spotify sounded better than new rival Sky Songs. Spotify uses 160Kbps OGG compression for its free service, whereas Sky Songs uses 48Kbps AAC+ compression. Over a third of participants thought the lower bit rate sounded better."
this summary is misleading. they were asked to choose which they thought sounded better. the listeners DID notice a difference between the two, and for some reason 1/3 of the participants enjoyed the lower bitrate version better. perhaps it had less harsh high tones or something about it was more pleasurable to them... that doesn't mean that the higher bitrate didn't honestly sound more accurate to the source material. Perhaps uncompressed audio should have also been incorporated into the test. If they still choose the lower bitrate over uncompressed, then it's clear that some listeners prefer the song with the changes inherent to compression.
this was a very unscientific study, with a very small sample size, and really shouldn't be front page on slashdot.
frog blast the vent core
No, just the headline is massively misleading.
The article actually states that people (a) could hear the difference (b) thought the lower bit rate stuff sounded better.
The key being that the two were encoded with two totally different codecs.
Since the 16 subjects were asked "which sounds better" and were not given an alternative "there's no difference" then it's actually possible that 12 of the 16 thought there was no difference, and so they randomly picked A or B. And 6 picked A.
So it's possible that only 25% could tell the difference and selected the higher bit rate.
Great study. Very Scientific.
Unfortunately, somewhere between now and when I was a kid...people stopped buying good home audio systems. I don't quite know what or what happened.
Maybe they didnt enjoy it.
Why do you think people enjoy music and songs ? Most likely, not because its reproduced faithfully, or because they care about the nuances.
Almost nobody cares about the nuances, they like beats and bass or dancy tunes, gansta lyrics or love stories, stuff that is accessible and they can relate to.
Sure, some people care about that little uptick from the violin on the 3rd measure of the 6th symphony of whoever that you can only hear with an hi-fi system in a quiet room. But most people just listen to music to either give them some energy for their workout, have fun at parties or concert, or drone the sounds of their miserable commutes, dreary jog run or boring life.
Same reasons people eat fast food instead of fine cuisine I guess.