RB181 t1_irch38i wrote on October 6, 2022 at 11:55 PM

Reply to comment by o7_brother in It's happened. And now I can't go back by Solypsist_27

Honestly, I'd say it isn't as hard as Spotify wants you to believe. Online A/B(/X) tests like that one are also flawed for a number of reasons (for one, the selection of music samples is limited and doesn't accurately reflect what the user listens to).

ultra_prescriptivist t1_ircncti wrote on October 7, 2022 at 12:49 AM

To clarify, the link above isn't sponsored by Spotify - it's independent. They have ABX tests for Tidal as well.

Also, musical taste shouldn't have any bearing on sound quality comparisons.

RB181 t1_irdq5j7 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 7:34 AM

> Also, musical taste shouldn't have any bearing on sound quality comparisons.

It definitely does. Classical music and EDM, for example, have very different instruments and production methods, and some things you can hear in classical will respond to compression differently from things you can hear in EDM.

ultra_prescriptivist t1_irdr80o wrote on October 7, 2022 at 7:52 AM

That's true, but that's not what you said before.

Your previous comment said

>and doesn't accurately reflect what the user listens to

Implying that a lack of familiarity with the tracks being tested might have a significant effect.

FWIW though, I would agree that the best way to ABX is to do your own conversion from lossless to lossy locally and use an offline ABX tool.

RB181 t1_irdrx87 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 8:03 AM

> Implying that a lack of familiarity with the tracks being tested might have a significant effect.

I never said that this was false, because it is also true. You know that feeling when you notice a detail in a song that you had never noticed before, even though you've listened to the song many times? Maybe that detail sounds better when it's lossless.

> FWIW though, I would agree that the best way to ABX is to do your own conversion from lossless to lossy locally and use an offline ABX tool.

This I agree, and with this method (using mostly /r/symphonicmetal which I normally listen to) I get consistently better results than the pre-made tests.