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ultra_prescriptivist t1_ircncti wrote

Reply to comment by RB181 in It's happened. And now I can't go back by Solypsist_27

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.

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RB181 t1_irdq5j7 wrote

> 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.

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ultra_prescriptivist t1_irdr80o wrote

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.

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RB181 t1_irdrx87 wrote

> 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.

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