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Jeg har desverre ikke mottatt dette nummeret, men dette er interessant:
Abstract:
Abstract:
Claims both published and anecdotal are regularly made for audibly superior sound quality for two-channel audio encoded with longer word lengths and/or at higher sampling rates than the 16-bit/44.1-kHz CD standard. The authors report on a series of double-blind tests comparing the analog output of high-resolution players playing high-resolution recordings with the same signal passed through a 16-bit/44.1-kHz "bottleneck." The tests were conducted for over a year using different systems and a variety of subjects. The systems included expensive professional monitors and one high-end system with electrostatic loudspeakers and expensive components and cables. The subjects included professional recording engineers, students in a university recording program, and dedicated audiophiles. The test results show that the CD-quality A/D/A loop was undetectable at normal-to-loud listening levels, by any of the subjects, on any of the playback systems. The noise of the CD-quality loop was audible only at very elevated levels.
Many types of music and voice signals were included in the sources, from classical (choral, chamber, piano, orchestral) to jazz, pop, and rock music. The subjects included men and women of widely varying ages, acuities, and levels of musical and audio experience; many were audio professionals or serious students of the art.
The test results for the detectability of the 16/44.1 loop on SACD/DVD-A playback were the same as chance: 49.82%. There were 554 trials and 276 correct answers. The sole exceptions were for the condition of no signal and high system gain, when the difference in noise floors of the two technologies, old and new, was readily audible.
...
The high system gain was about 14 dB. At that level, the noise difference became noticable, but music at the same play-back level was found to be "unpleasantly (often unbearably) loud
En kommentar fra hydrogenaudio-forumist:...it is a rare playback venue that is quiet enough to reveal the 16-bit noise floor of our A/D/A loopwhich has no noise shaping and was therefore less than optimal in this regard.
The paper concludes with the note that the high res releases sounded much, much better than the same music on CD, for well-known mastering reasons. So it ends on a surprisingly pro-high-res note. I'm actually more psyched up to buy SACD and DVD-A now compared to before I read it. I certainly haven't given much attention to high res releases, partly due to the copy restrictions, but partly because I always figured it was all bollocks and I might as well stick with CD.