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ultra_prescriptivist t1_j5uhy63 wrote

Reply to comment by Pigeon_Chess in HD 650 ruined me by GLikesSteak

Bruh, do I have just the thing for you.

I recorded a series of samples from Spotify and compared them to others taken from Apple Music, Tidal, and Qobuz.

Before you go any further, I would suggest you head over to the link below, download and listen to a few of them and see for yourself how that "marked difference" vanishes when you don't know which one you're listening to.

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/ymk4fj/curious_to_see_if_apple_music_tidal_qubuz_really/

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chnch0 t1_j5ujlgo wrote

I tried AB-ing Apple lossless and Spotify before. While I do believe there’s an audible difference between the two, I wouldn’t label Spotify as an inferior streaming service. Their algo in making playlists is topnotch, and their interface is much more user friendly and appealing compared to AM. And at the end of the day, I concur with OP - you’re there to listen and enjoy the music.

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Pigeon_Chess t1_j5uil7x wrote

Dude I’ve already tested CD vs Spotify vs Apple Music.

Question is what did you record them on?

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_j5uj30u wrote

Tested how? Listened to them side by side while jumping back and forth, or an actual blind ABX test?

You can see details of my methodology in the link above.

I've had about a dozen people message me so far and none of them were able consistenly tell Spotify apart from any of the other services.

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Pigeon_Chess t1_j5ujj67 wrote

You haven’t heard of alt tab I’m guessing?

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_j5uk2wz wrote

Lol knew it.

You have the unmerited confidence of someone who hasn't actually attempted a blind ABX test of Vorbis @320 versus FLAC.

I genuinely suggest you try it.

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Pigeon_Chess t1_j5ukemm wrote

Again you haven’t heard of alt tab which allows you to do a blind ABX test?

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_j5ukuy6 wrote

No I haven't.

Do go on and explain it to me in your own words

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Pigeon_Chess t1_j5ulmra wrote

So ABX test would be listening to two sources and then randomly listening to one of them again to see if you can distinguish if it was A or B. You can open two windows, stay with me here, listen to the same point in a song on each tab then resetting to the start without looking using Alt tab to skip between tabs and then, here’s the tricky part, you can HOLD alt tab for a period of time which causes it to rapidly jump windows, randomising the window you land on. Then you can listen for a third time and then draw conclusions.

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_j5une9k wrote

Lol it's not a proper blind test if it's you that's controlling things, regardless of whether you squeeze eyes shut or not.

Plus did you do that at least 10 times per song to rule out the possibilty that you simply guessed the right answer out of sheer luck?

While I admire your inclination to test it out in the first place, I'm afraid that any results you obtained by the method you described above are not reliable whatsoever.

I have included details of how to conduct a proper double-blind ABX and provided links to freely available tools in the link above, should you want to give it a proper go.

Or at least you can simply listen to the samples I recorded side by side and see how they are incredibly hard to tell apart when you don't know which is which.

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Pigeon_Chess t1_j5uoliy wrote

Um… you just don’t look at the display? You don’t control where the alt tab lands because you have no way of knowing. You do it at the start so you don’t know what A or B is and and you don’t know what X is. That like saying a randomisation algorithm isn’t random because you pressed go.

5 consecutive results is what a 3% chance of guessing all 5 correct?

Kinda are though. Unless you think someone can count in hundredths of a second to know what tab they’re currently on?

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_j5uowsm wrote

Mate, your method fails on multiple levels.

You haven't done an actual blind test.

You don't get to act with this level of arrogance when you haven't even done that much.

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Pigeon_Chess t1_j5uptb0 wrote

I don’t think you know what a blind test is. So you believe that if you listen to two sources, and you do not know what either of those two sources are, you then listen to one of those again after a process after which you have no way of knowing which source you’re listing to isn’t random? It doesn’t matter who presses the button. If you have no way of knowing there’s no way of knowing. You’ve just got caught out

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