thaell
Andreas (82MHz)New blog post:
Can I hear a difference between MP3s and uncompressed audio?
http://82mhz.net/posts/2026/03/can-i-hear-a-difference-between-mp3s-and-uncompressed-audio/
Amin, minor deity of the legume realmI tried this for myself a while backโฆ I think it'll depend a lot too on your specific hardware. Sounds like yours is better than mine. And the genre of music; with classical, for example, better hardware can help you better distinguish the different instruments from each other.
Cool A/B player, though! I had just listened back to back.
@amin
The player is great! I'm so glad people are making cool stuff like this.
Classical music is notoriously difficult audio because of its huge dynamic range. I don't have any classical recordings that I could have tested, but this and a pure vocal is for sure the most challenging task for a compression algorithm.
Hm, maybe I should test this on The Manhattan Transfer's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square". Stunningly beautiful four-part harmony with no accompaniment.
@amin Never heard of that before, but please do and let me know!
Stefano Marinelli@82mhz great post. When I was younger I could easily spot the mp3 and the original wav file.
Now, it's not that easy anymore.
I'll perform your test without looking at the correct solutions, but I'm quite sure I won't be able to detect (100%) the difference. The encoders improved, my ears decreased their efficiency.
Now, it's not that easy anymore.
I'll perform your test without looking at the correct solutions, but I'm quite sure I won't be able to detect (100%) the difference. The encoders improved, my ears decreased their efficiency.
Terence Eden@82mhz brilliant post. I'm off to have a play with that A|B test thing. Thanks ๐
@Edent Thanks! Enjoy :)
mhd
Plasmawiz@82mhz Not having read the post yet but: these days compression is good enough that the regular person is not gonna tell the difference between a FLAC or a properly produced MP3/OPUS file unless they have a high-powered headphone+amp setup.
(Despite this, I keep all my music in FLAC and WAV because I am just autistic like that)
@plasmawiz
Completely agree. For storage and preservation I also prefer uncompressed, I wouldn't just rip all my CDs to mp3 and then throw them away. But for normal everyday listening... mp3 is fine.
Completely agree. For storage and preservation I also prefer uncompressed, I wouldn't just rip all my CDs to mp3 and then throw them away. But for normal everyday listening... mp3 is fine.
bbbhltz@82mhz CD is lossy already, so the differences might be harder to hear. I can tell the difference on albums I know very well. Some genres make it harder too. I don't know any of those songs "by heart."
More and more of the music I buy digitally is 24-bit lossless, so when I hit shuffle and a 320kbps track pops up, there is a *bit* of a difference.
I'll try your test later after work!
Sophie
๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐ โ ๐คช@82mhz sounds like (erf erf erf) I had the same experience last time I had to choose between FLAC and MP3 at 320kbps. Although I thought my ears were just not made to hear the difference :)
@joel ๐ well good for you, because you get to save some money ๐
mahadevank@82mhz ii scored high on the test, I guess the last one didn't have a B alternative, or atleast, it didn't work on my browser
I think if you focus on the realism of the sound, you can make out the difference. No artifacts in the output for sure.
Very very minor though, I had to focus and listen hard to figure out the difference.
@mahadevank
The last one (Vangelis) works fine for me, that's weird...
But congratulations on being able to tell them apart. I can't...
The last one (Vangelis) works fine for me, that's weird...
But congratulations on being able to tell them apart. I can't...
@82mhz ah yeah, it works for me after a refresh, and i got that one wrong ๐
@mahadevank ๐ it's not easy!
IrgndSonDepp@82mhz That is an amazing post! The A/B tests are really cool. I scored lousy, but I knew that already. I ran similar experiments on myself and always came to the same conclusion. Even with MP3 bitrates around 192kbit/s, I can't really tell the difference. At least it doesn't bother me.
And the song selection is great! Now I really need to dig into Gamma Ray. That riff is awesome! ๐ค
(I just put on the Dreamland link from your Gamma Ray post.)
And the song selection is great! Now I really need to dig into Gamma Ray. That riff is awesome! ๐ค
(I just put on the Dreamland link from your Gamma Ray post.)
@82mhz Say...was this all just an elaborate ploy to trick me to finally listen to Gamma Ray!? ๐คฃ
@irgndsondepp
You will learn what's good for you!! ๐
You will learn what's good for you!! ๐
@irgndsondepp
Thanks! I think 192kbit sounds perfectly fine, too. But since memory is plenty these days, we can splurge and go to 320kbit ;)
And yes, the riff rocks! ๐ช Had to listen to the whole song again after your message ๐
fyrfaras@82mhz Thank you for your blog post! <3 It's very nice that you provided an additional explaination regarding lossless and lossy compression which is refreshing for my lossy knowledge. :D Also I didn't know that Bluetooth devices are lossless by default, unless this aptX feature exists. :o ATM for my own home streaming collection with Navidrome I'm encoding my CD collection with opus around 160 kbits/s, which is fine so far I can hear.
@fyrfaras Thanks for reading! It's an area I find really interesting so I can talk about it for hours on end ;)
I think with opus at 160kbit you're going to be absolutely fine.
I think with opus at 160kbit you're going to be absolutely fine.
Sebastian Lauwers@82mhz I was able to confidently pick the WAV on 4/5 of the songs. Maybe luck? The only one where I couldnโt hear a difference, guessed, and got it wrong, was the Ennio Morricone one.
Fascinating! Would love to do more testing.
@teotwaki
Interesting to hear! FIve songs is just a tiny test of course, but I'm sure there are sites where the tests are a bit more sophisticated ;) After all, it's just a bit of fun what I'm doing here.
Thanks a lot for reading and playing along :)
Interesting to hear! FIve songs is just a tiny test of course, but I'm sure there are sites where the tests are a bit more sophisticated ;) After all, it's just a bit of fun what I'm doing here.
Thanks a lot for reading and playing along :)
drwx
๐ Mirko ๐@82mhz No difference between 320k and Lossless. And i don't care, if others can.
@m1rk0 Same here. No difference for me, but if someone can hear a difference, I'm not going to argue with that. I'm sure some people have great ears and can tell. I can't, I'm happy with mp3 :)
@82mhz Sadly, this discussion has already been ruined by elitists and self-proclaimed audiophiles 30 years ago. Audiophiles exist, but they rarely do brag about it.
@m1rk0 Oh yes... the kind of things you read and hear in "audiophiles" forums and videos is often completely ludicrous.Like, you have to paint a black circle around the edge of your cds to make them sound "warmer" or whatever... it's good for having a good laugh at least.
two first names@82mhz It depends on the person, the equipment, and the song, I think. In your AB tests I gauged my confidence level along with which I thought was lossless and on two of them I had high confidence and was correct on both. On the others I couldnโt tell at all. However, on the two I could tell, thatโs only because I was hearing them together. The mp3 was perfectly good sounding on its own.
@deancommasteven It's very personal, sure. Some people have great ears and they can tell. Also dependent on the material of course. I can't, so I am perfectly content with the mp3 versions.
Stephen Gower@82mhz I didn't go through your test, but 100% I don't hear a difference between MP3 and lossless. I am re-ripping my CDs to lossless but that's because I have access to an iPod and wired headphones. But I listen to the actual CDs when I get the chance to.
Jake in the desert@82mhz great post. And yeah, this is why I do all 320 unless I happen across something that's FLAC only. Or opus, that's even better. Especially for older recordings, which aren't always totally loud enough for my liking. But yeah, there's really no difference between 320 mp3s and 16 FLACs for me (the 24 ones often sound even SOFTER to me, since you need special codecs and such for em). So I stick with 320s, space constraints, time downloading, etc. And I personally hear no difference.
Tom
Jeremy@82mhz Cool! I took the test and it sort of reinforced what I've been saying for a while, that being able to tell the difference in lossless audio is highly dependent on the type of music you listen to.
On some of your examples I was able to confidently and correctly guess which was which after only one listen (and this was on Bluetooth earbuds!). Others were much more difficult and nearly identical.
@jp Interesting! :)
Anita LewisThat was fun switching back and forth and listening to different types of music. I couldn't tell the difference, but I'm not at the top of my game in hearing or sound equipment.
Timo TijhofTIL that Mobile Safari on latest iOS 26 can't play WAV :/
(And given other browsers on iOS are required by Apple to simply embed and wrap the same WebKit/Safari web view, this applies to all browsers on iOS.)
@krinkle I have no words for that. Why would Apple remove this?
@82mhz I can't reproduce this on other iPhone devices.
I suspect it has to do with enabling the Lockdown Mode feature. For some reason Apple trusts its MP3 decoders but not its WAV decoders, when this security setting is enabled.
Still strange and questionable, but a lot less strange than not supporting it by default!
Nigel@82mhz
A great post and setup.
Being now 'really old' I've been through most sound tech eras (OK not 78 rpm really! ๐) and came eventually to the conclusion that despite having been a sound engineer for part of my life, and a keen listener/audio freak for most of it, I really value the music over the medium. Same goes for visuals too. I want good stuff. Extra quality is fine but the content is boss. If I listen to Elmore James records in 96kHz 24bit ... need I say more! ๐
SnazzyGumball@82mhz Thanks for the great post. I didn't seem to find a difference between the A/Bs somehow got lucky and guessed all 5 which was the wav went solely on my gut feeling after listening to both for more times that you'd expect. Was fun and informative experience and came to the conclusion that I should save me some space on my devices by compressing my library since I can't hear a difference.
@SnazzyGumball
Hey, thanks for reading! Maybe you have great ears and you did get it right ;)
Anyway, glad you got something out of it!