So Lets do a test. Which audio format sound the best? This is to test whether audio format and settings actually make any difference to human ears. Music details: I am using a small snippet of audio due to fair use / copyright laws. The album is pay what you like so you can get the full album for free anyway. Song: Intrepid Journey Album: Redemption Artist: Aaron Static Get the album/song here (pay what you like): http://thisisforyouaus.bandcamp.com/album/redemption Method: The original flac file was cropped within Audacity and then exported to multiple different file types within Audacity. I then used Any Video Converter by Anvsoft to convert them all back to flac files out of convenience (batch converting) while taking a list of which each file corresponds to. The internet will then vote on what it prefers. The File types are: flac (the original file) mp2 (384kb/s) mp3 (80kb/s) mp3 (192kb/s) mp3 (320kb/s) ogg vorbis (quality level 0) ogg vorbis (quality level 10) How to cast your votes: (No longer available) The files are attached in a zip file, just extract it to your desktop and then delete when you are done. Fill in the Google Form that can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YPDBlFv9ORMzgyW6C98i-brVDhbdh8oIG3V032Na34k/viewform Results: All results are anonymous, feel free to discuss your thoughts below but please dont use that discussion as a basis for your opinion. Results: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YP...032Na34k/viewanalytics#start=publishanalytics File relationships: File 1 = mp3 80 File 2 = MP2 384 File 3 = flac File 4 = vorbis 0 File 5 = vorbis 10 File 6 = mp3 192 File 7 = mp3 320 Everyone got the naff format correct, one person got the flac file and the other 2 guessed that the 320kb/s mp3 was the best. The person with the Afterglow AG.1 gaming headset got the correct format, my guess is that it was luck but they responded saying that they were fairly certain so who knows, they were equally as sure as the guy with the Valhalla 2 and HD800's which probably says everything that needs to be said. File sizes I was fairly impressed by the lowest quality ogg file since it sounded pretty damn good despite being even smaller than the rather appalling mp3 80kb/s. So if you really want to save space ogg is the format for you. Since most people thought that mp3 320 kb/s was the best sounding it makes a pretty good argument for using it, it is considerably smaller than the flac file and arguably just as good. Thanks to anyone who responded
Yes, preferably if you can link to the same response page so that all results are together. Feel free.
Thanks, it is at http://www.reddit.com/r/audio/comments/32909y/audio_file_format_test_how_good_are_your_ears/
Thats odd, is it just file 1 or is it any file? If possible you could try opening it with a different music player. VLC should be able to open flac files so im not sure what the issue there is. Personally i use Foobar 2000 to play music, all not awful media players will sound the same, its just the user interface.
every one, though it's not just your file. let me try MPC-HC and get back to you. Works with MPC-HC, doesnt with vlc on win8.1
Only 3..... I chose the MP3 320k, the FLAC I thought was close. Maybe classical music might have been an easier pick. It's easy to find the differences in the instruments.
I did think about that before the test but ultimately it came down to this being a freely available bit of music that is in a high quality audio format to begin with. Its a shame there were only 3 responses. I have also added file size information to the first post as well. I am super impressed by that ogg file that is smaller than the naff 80kb/s mp3.
