24-bit v/s 16-bit v/s ... 8-bit!
Neil Young's Pono Music relies on the 24-bit 192 kHz audio format. This uncompromised studio quality has been the source of endless debates lately. Chris 'Monty' Montgomery, the respected creator of the Ogg container format and Vorbis audio codec, is also the author of one of the most comprehensive article on this subject, available here. He writes: "The more that pseudoscience goes unchecked in the world at large, the harder it is for truth to overcome truthiness."
This page offers you a chance to check the effect of bit depth, in a browser-friendly, easier and even more provocative 16-bit v/s 8-bit scenario. Don't get me wrong, differences between 16-bit and 8-bit are clearly audible, and are demonstrated on my Dynamic Range, Dithering and Noise Shaping page. However, because contemporary popular music has such a limited dynamic range, these differences become subtle, if not inaudible, when tested on it.
Raising awareness of what has happened lately to the dynamic range of our music was the purpose of my original 16-bit v/s 8-bit Blind Listening Test. Recently, after taking that test, a user commented that I should perform it with Neil Young's own music—an ironic suggestion that I thought would be fun to implement. Mr. Young, please forgive me.
Files being tested
| 16-bit | 8-bit |
Neil Young's 'Rockin in the Free World' intro, with its original 16-bit format, and its 8-bit down-converted sibling.
The Test
| 16-bit 8-bit | |
| Listen to [?] then vote — multiple guesses not allowed (your vote triggers a new draw) | |
To pass a blind test, you will need to perform 10 trials at least, obtain a high score and reach a high confidence level: 95% is standard to rate statistical significance. It means that your score outperforms random guesses by 95%. There is still a probability that you just got lucky though, 5%. To reduce such probability to 1%, keep testing until you reached a confidence level of 99%.
Related pages
Dynamic Range Test
External Links
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Take up the challenge
- Find the smallest difference in sound levels you can detect.
The Level Series: 6dB 3dB 1dB 0.5dB 0.2dB 0.1dB - Find the highest frequency you can reliably hear.
The Frequency Series: 10kHz 11k 12k 13k 14k 15k 16k 17k 18k 19k 20kHz - Find the smallest difference in pitch (frequency) you can hear.
The Pitch Series: 50c 20c 10c 5c 2c 1c - Find the shortest timing difference you can reliably hear. NEW
The Timing Series: 1ms 2ms 5ms 10ms 20ms 50ms 100ms - Find the highest dynamic range offered by your listening environment.
The Dynamic Range Series: 36dB 42dB 48dB 54dB 60dB 66dB 72dB 78dB - Do you have the absolute hearing ability?
The Perfect Pitch Blind Test: C Scale Chromatic - Are your ears sensitive to Absolute Phase?
The Absolute Polarity Blind Test: Here - Can you hear a difference between 16-bit and 8-bit audio files?
The 16-bit v/s 8-bit Blind Test
