May 29, 2021 13:00:00

'How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?' To guess which of the three types of audio files has the highest sound quality.

Music streaming services such as

Spotify and Tidal are beginning to support Hi-Fi one after another in search of high sound quality. However, it is considered difficult for many viewers to compare the sound quality of audio files such as the uncompressed format represented by WAV and the lossy compressed format represented by MP3. Therefore, National Public Radio (NPR) , a non-profit radio network in the United States, prepared the same sound source in three types: WAV, 128kbps mp3 file, and 320kbps mp3 file, and released a test page where you can compare and listen. I am.

How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality ?: The Record: NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

The 'How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?' Page looks like this.

If you scroll down, you will find three sample files of the same song like this. The first song is Coldplay's '

Speed Of Sound '.

When you press the play mark, part of the phrase of the song will start playing for a few seconds.

Of the three types available, think about 'Which is WAV (highest sound quality)' and click the check box labeled 'YOUR PICK' on the right. This time I chose the middle.

The result is correct. 'Speed of Sound' related to the sound quality of 'Speed of Sound' at the bottom was the 1 billionth song downloaded from Apple's iTunes store. When Apple launched the iTunes store in 2004, it had its own AAC file format. I used it and encoded it at 128kbps. '

The second song that follows is Jay Z's '

Tom Ford .' It's a rap song, so it's much harder to understand than the first song.

When I chose the bottom, the result was incorrect. The episode displayed was an introductory text to Tidal introduced by artists such as Jay Z.

After testing all 6 songs prepared like this, I will answer about how I heard the voice at the end. The contents from A to F are as follows
A: Headphones connected to a phone or computer
B: Headphones connected to an

amplifier or DAC
C: Built-in speaker for phones, tablets and computers
D: External speaker connected to phone or computer
E: External speaker connected to the amplifier or DAC
F: Headphones or speakers connected via Bluetooth

Click any of A to F to see the number of correct answers and comments on how to watch. In the case of A's 'headphones connected to a phone or computer', 'depending on the quality of the headphones, you may be able to distinguish between the two types of mp3s, but it may not work without an amplifier or DAC.' It was a comment.

I can understand that the 128kbps audio is 'a little different', but I could hardly feel the difference between 320kbps and WAV, just thinking 'I think this is a little better ...?'. The song order and the order of choices will change each time the page is reloaded. If you are confident in your ears, please give it a try.