Prompted by halb27's reference in the "Using insane settings with MP3" thread, I picked shadowking's Karov_El_Libech2 sample.
Test setup: M-Audiophile 24/96 -> Yamaha RX-V800 -> Shure E4. I limited each test to 10 trials; but as it had been a while since I did ABX, in the first test I did an extra trial by mistake. The Hide results checkbox was marked during all tests until the 10th trial was complete. Though initially I wanted to test the insane preset, I decided to err on the side of caution and start low.
1. CBR128 --preset cbr 128
[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']
WinABX v0.42 test report
11/09/2005 04:24:03
A file: C:\Incoming\Karov_El_Libech2.wav
B file: C:\Incoming\1. Karov_El_Libech2-3.97b-CBR 128.wav
04:24:09 reset
04:24:10 reset
04:24:30 1/1 p=50.0%
04:24:48 2/2 p=25.0%
04:24:59 3/3 p=12.5%
04:25:07 4/4 p=6.2%
04:25:19 5/5 p=3.1%
04:25:26 6/6 p=1.6%
04:25:33 7/7 p=0.8%
04:25:40 8/8 p=0.4%
04:25:53 9/9 p=0.2%
04:26:02 10/10 p< 0.1%
04:26:07 11/11 p< 0.1%
[/span]While test-driving WinABX, I completed this test at least two other times with similar results (9/9 and 12/12). The distortion, similar to that a punctured speaker would produce, was obvious throughout.
2. ABR128 --preset 128
[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']WinABX v0.42 test report
11/09/2005 04:32:39
A file: C:\Incoming\ABX\Karov_El_Libech2.wav
B file: C:\Incoming\ABX\1. Karov_El_Libech2 ABR128.wav
Start position 00:00.0, end position 00:08.1
04:33:56 1/1 p=50.0%
04:34:03 2/2 p=25.0%
04:34:13 3/3 p=12.5%
04:34:21 4/4 p=6.2%
04:34:26 5/5 p=3.1%
04:34:31 6/6 p=1.6%
04:34:37 7/7 p=0.8%
04:34:43 8/8 p=0.4%
04:34:50 9/9 p=0.2%
04:34:56 10/10 p< 0.1%
[/span]Just as easy as with CBR128.
3. VBR128 -V5
[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']WinABX v0.42 test report
11/09/2005 04:45:54
A file: C:\Incoming\ABX\Karov_El_Libech2.wav
B file: C:\Incoming\ABX\1. Karov_El_Libech2 -V5.wav
04:46:11 1/1 p=50.0%
04:46:19 2/2 p=25.0%
04:46:24 3/3 p=12.5%
04:46:38 4/4 p=6.2%
04:46:48 5/5 p=3.1%
04:46:53 6/6 p=1.6%
04:47:01 7/7 p=0.8%
04:47:06 8/8 p=0.4%
04:47:11 9/9 p=0.2%
04:47:18 10/10 p< 0.1%
[/span]The hole in the speaker seemed smaller with the VBR preset, not by much.
4. mid-range VBR-old -V4 (--preset medium)
[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']WinABX v0.42 test report
11/09/2005 04:51:19
A file: C:\Incoming\ABX\Karov_El_Libech2.wav
B file: C:\Incoming\ABX\1. Karov_El_Libech2 -medium.wav
04:51:46 1/1 p=50.0%
04:51:53 2/2 p=25.0%
04:51:59 3/3 p=12.5%
04:52:03 4/4 p=6.2%
04:52:11 5/5 p=3.1%
04:52:16 6/6 p=1.6%
04:52:21 7/7 p=0.8%
04:52:32 7/8 p=3.5%
04:52:39 8/9 p=2.0%
04:52:47 9/10 p=1.1%
[/span]In comparison to the 128kbps tests, the general warbing/interrupted sound effect is reduced to a relatively minor distortion (during the first half-second) that is best described as a small fart. =) A previous test showed 10/10, but as this was my first real ABX session, I thought I was just very lucky and decided to have another go. Seems like I wasn't, after all; but this test was significantly harder than the 128 ones.
5. mid-range VBR-new --preset fast medium
[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']WinABX v0.42 test report
11/09/2005 04:55:01
A file: C:\Incoming\ABX\Karov_El_Libech2.wav
B file: C:\Incoming\ABX\1. Karov_El_Libech2-fast medium.wav
04:56:23 1/1 p=50.0%
04:56:28 2/2 p=25.0%
04:56:36 3/3 p=12.5%
04:56:45 4/4 p=6.2%
04:56:51 5/5 p=3.1%
04:56:56 6/6 p=1.6%
04:57:15 7/7 p=0.8%
04:57:19 8/8 p=0.4%
04:57:24 9/9 p=0.2%
04:57:30 10/10 p< 0.1%
[/span]This looks like worse distortion than with VBR-old, but I was just more concentrated this time.
I ran a couple tests with -preset standard and --preset fast standard; and even though I got 9/9 once with the former, I just could not trust myself to detect the very minor hiss/tremolo I imagined to hear where --preset medium's mini-fart was. Thus I decided to postpone these tests until I get more practice.
As this is the first time I post ABX results, I'd appreciate any comments and corrections.
Topic: LAME 3.97 beta 1 listening test thread (Read 2631 times)
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