Music lovers can tell the difference between high resolution and standard audio, a new study from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) has revealed.
The study compared data from over 12,000 different trials from 18 studies where participants were asked to discriminate between samples of music in different formats.
Dr Joshua Reiss from QMUL’s Centre for Digital Music in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science said that audio purists will welcome the findings.
‘Our study finds high resolution audio has a small but important advantage in its quality of reproduction over standard audio content,’ he explained.
Many in the music industry have been split as to whether people can really hear a difference between CD quality music and high resolution audio.
However, this new study found that listeners can tell the difference between low and high resolution audio formats. This effect is dramatically increased with training: trained test subjects could distinguish between the formats around 60 percent of the time.
Writing in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, the research suggested that careful selection of stimuli, such as using long samples of more than 30 seconds, may play an important role in the ability to discriminate between the formats.
Dr Reiss explained: ‘One motivation for this research was that people in the audio community endlessly discuss whether the use of high resolution formats and equipment really make a difference. Conventional wisdom states that CD quality should be sufficient to capture everything we hear, yet anecdotes abound where individuals claim that hi-res content sounds crisper, or more intense. And people often cherry-pick their favourite study to support whichever side they’re on.’
The samples analysed were mainly classical and jazz music. Visit the QMUL website for more information.
The study compared data from over 12,000 different trials from 18 studies where participants were asked to discriminate between samples of music in different formats.
Dr Joshua Reiss from QMUL’s Centre for Digital Music in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science said that audio purists will welcome the findings.
‘Our study finds high resolution audio has a small but important advantage in its quality of reproduction over standard audio content,’ he explained.
Many in the music industry have been split as to whether people can really hear a difference between CD quality music and high resolution audio.
However, this new study found that listeners can tell the difference between low and high resolution audio formats. This effect is dramatically increased with training: trained test subjects could distinguish between the formats around 60 percent of the time.
Writing in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, the research suggested that careful selection of stimuli, such as using long samples of more than 30 seconds, may play an important role in the ability to discriminate between the formats.
Dr Reiss explained: ‘One motivation for this research was that people in the audio community endlessly discuss whether the use of high resolution formats and equipment really make a difference. Conventional wisdom states that CD quality should be sufficient to capture everything we hear, yet anecdotes abound where individuals claim that hi-res content sounds crisper, or more intense. And people often cherry-pick their favourite study to support whichever side they’re on.’
The samples analysed were mainly classical and jazz music. Visit the QMUL website for more information.
