pippin wrote: > This is not at all unexpected but actually something you'll find with > almost every ABX test on mp3, have seen it myself when doing such tests > in the past. > > The cause is probably the psychoacoustic compression. > To compress, mp3 uses heuristics that are known (from actual tests) to > preserve perceived SQ while dropping information. Mp3 got developed with > the goal to have the best sounding result at a given bitrate and it's > been tested and re-tested to get close to this. > > It's the same with dynamics compression. Unless the differences are very > noticeable, so that people can make a conscious decision, based on > perceived SQ alone compressed music sounds better.
This doesn't explain *why* it might sound better, though? We know it shouldn't sound (much) worse, and these tests seem to support that, but why might it sound better? An interesting test would be to split the results into groups, depending on how familiar the subjects were with listening to MP3. e.g. one might imagine that subjects that listen to a lot of MP3 might be more likely to prefer MP3 over lossless, compared to those who regularly listen go FLAC, or don't regularly listen to MP3. i.e. it might be possible that people choose what sounds familiar, and relate that to "better"? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cdmackay's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=24816 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98010 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
