Do 320kbps mp3 files really sound better? Take the test! Do 320kbp, Maybe unscientific, but interesting results Options

[2Bdecided]

128kbps vs 320kbps samples here:

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/mp3-so...y-test-128-320/

EDIT: If you want to try the test yourself, DO NOT read on - there are spoilers further down this thread































































The reason I posted it (and the reason it's interesting IMO) is because most people got it "wrong".

43634 votes for 128kbps being better
vs
39578 votes for 320kbps being better

FWIW I thought both sounded like low quality vinyl (a bit muffled, a bit noisy), but the 128kbps version had extra artefacts.


Cheers,
David.

This post has been edited by 2Bdecided: Feb 23 2012, 19:58

[zima]

Another possible factor in such distribution of votes: people might be getting used, after a decade+, to how "worse" bitrate sounds - we have a precedence of this effect with vinyl, and I remember also a thread here (linking to an article in some high-profile ~newspaper) about such & compact cassettes.

PS. I seemed to remember reading somewhere about some studies of such effects... luckily, it turned out to be in the most straightforward of places:

A test given to new students by Stanford University Music Professor Jonathan Berger showed that student preference for MP3 quality music has risen each year. Berger said the students seem to prefer the 'sizzle' sounds that MP3s bring to music.[43]
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/the-sizzl...d-of-music.html

Plus the "this sounds right & just like I'm used to" effect could even be sort of more prominent, I imagine, on typical cheap headphones, speakers, poor listening conditions.
(is there still expectation of censoring such this low in the thread? )

This post has been edited by zima: Feb 24 2012, 01:09