Sample name: Pierres réfléchies [reflected stones]
Artist name: Pierre Henry
Composition: Pierres réfléchies [34 min 53 sec]
CD: MIX Pierre Henry 04.1
Label: Philips
Reference: 472202-2
Lossless format: flac 1.10
Size: 800 kb
Length: 7 seconds
Lossy encoder tested:
• vorbis aoTuV beta 2, at:
-q6 (233 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [range: 0.0 – 7.0]
-q7 (330 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [range: 3.0 – 7.0]
-q8 (365 kbps): ABX = 17/20 [range: 1.0 – 4.0]
[failed at –q9]
• vorbis 1.01+GT3b2, at:
-q6 (308 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [range: 0.0 – 7.0]
-q7 (353 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [range: 0.0 – 7.0]
-q8 (461 kbps): ABX = 13/16 [range: 1.0 – 3.0]
[failed at –q9]
Problem description: micro-attacks are blured, and sharpness is smoothened by an extra-noise.
• musepack 1.14 with --xlevel, at:
--quality 5 (196 kbps): ABX = 11/12 [full range]
--quality 6 (227 kbps): ABX = 14/16 [full range]
--quality 7 (255 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [full range]
--quality 8 (284 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [1.2 – 3.0]
--quality 9 (312 kbps): ABX = 8/8 [1.2 – 3.0]
[didn’t test above]
Problem description: from –q5 to –q7 [include] micro-attacks are distorted. Reminds me a typical artifact I heard many times with similar signal and mpc encoding [creaking.wav; jump.wav; tosca.wav]: something like “boiling oil”...
At –q8 and –q9, this artifact disapeared, but a lack of sharpness and a slight noise was audible, like vorbis aoTuV/GT3. Better ABX score at higher bitrate are due to a stronger concentration, not really needed with –standard/--extreme presets, obviously worse.
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Testing conditions:
- Beyerdynamic DT-531 headphone
- Terratec DMX6fire soundcard
- Onkyo R-A5 tuner/amplifier
- foobar2000 0.82: kernel streaming • 32 fixed bit output without dithering
- foo_abx v1.2 • no replaygain
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Extra-comments:
- I’ve began with aoTuV testing, and I resume the test 24 hours after with GT3 then musepack for comparison.
- bitrate deviation is impressive with vorbis (especially Garf Tuning), but is controlled with musepack. MPC –q9 have the same bitrate on this short sample than vorbis 1.01+GT3b2 –q6.
- ABX log files are included in the .zip archive.