The AES so-called experiment is utter tosh. 2 of the 3 SACD players used weren't true DSD machines for a kick-off, many of the recordings were from 30+ year old analogue masters, it would be hard to set a system up worse than the one in the picture - speakers wobbling on the floor, close to a back wall, and close to resonant cupboards, dubious 'modified' equipment, and so on. And yet apparently female subects managed to score 37.5% - a result so significantly worse than chance that the whole methodology has to be questioned. A reasonable conclusion is, though, that self-styled audiophiles are not very good at making musical judgements through fancy audiophile systems.
Start with a contemporary high quality recording of known merit, such as the last movement of Mozart Symphony 41 from Linn http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-mozart-symphonies.aspx - a multi-award winning recording. Download it in 16/44 and 24/96. Make sure you have the latest SC so that the 24/96 version is properly downsampled to your squeezebox. Listen to both version. Which is more complex, intense, powerful? Which lets you follow more of the fugue as it flies round the orchestra? Which lets you differentiate the woodwind right inside the music? It's nothing to do with more bass, or more treble. Just more!!! Gimell are another company that have made 24 bit recordings for years - they also sell Logitech stuff - try the same comparison on one of their recordings. You might be interested in what they say: http://www.gimell.com/networkmusicplayers.aspx -- JezA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JezA's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21219 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60973 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
