Re: [Jack-Devel] Network Audio Transmission - Quality

On 24/06/2013 21:17, John Rigg wrote:
>
> I haven't done a formal double blind test, but I regularly test colleagues
> (and vice versa) by playing mp3s and wav files without telling the listener
> which is which. The success rate with certain listeners is close to 100%.
>

I must admit, I'm with John on this one.  If a person can be taught to 
play a musical instrument (and especially if they can be taught to be a 
sound mixer) it stands to reason that they can be taught to hear subtle 
nuances in sound.  In both cases, it goes with the territory.

Many years ago when I worked on AMS Neve's AudioFile DAW, our R&D guys 
came up with a new design to improve the phase response of its 
brick-wall filters, after countless complaints from BBC sound mixers.  
Subtleties in phase are notoriously difficult to detect and the guys 
were pretty confident that no-one would be able to hear the difference, 
even though the phase response was measurably more linear - but I could 
hear it.  In testing, I could tell with 100% reliability whether the old 
filter or the new filter was being used.  The tests were (literally) 
double-blind in the sense that I was forced to wear a blindfold AND to 
wear headphones, so that I couldn't be influenced by knowing which 
system was playing - nor by the direction or acoustic characteristics of 
the sound coming from different loudspeakers.  What's interesting is 
that out of an R&D dept of over 40 people, I was the only one who could 
hear the difference!

Of course, I was a lot younger back then.  Another important factor is 
that one's hearing changes markedly with age.  At any given time there's 
probably only a small percentage of the population who are even 
physically able to hear such nuances, even if they want to.

John

1372168762.29000_0.ltw:2,a <51C9A22E.8060204 at tiscali dot co dot uk>