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Uh oh.....I finally have a headphone which reveals to me the difference between Lossless and 320...

post #1 of 14
9/28/09 at 10:22pm
Thread Starter 
Yes its true.....out of my iPod I have been using 256 vbr AAC and 320 AAC for years.........but now I have the Ultrasone Ed8 and something was bothering me in the cymbals of certain songs and I assumed it was the bit rate so I did a blind test by loading two songs on to my ipod with the exact same name except one was label AAC and the other Lossless ....to be specific it was Josie by Steely Dan, and to be even more specific it was just a 10 second segment with a bit of cymbal work. I made a playlist of both tracks and put the playlist on repeat. I then had a friend come sit with me and begin the playlist on one OR the other but the starting track was unknown to me. I then listened several times back and forth and when I was finally sure of which track I was presently on, I would tell my friend to pause the track and I'd tell him if I was presently on AAC or Lossless.

Out of an experiment which we did 21 tries, I identified the track correctly all 21 times.

I have never been able to do this before with any headphone, any amp or any DAC. This includes the R10s and the HD800....I have these headphones. But never before have I been able to securely identify the difference between 320 AAC and Lossless.....not until the Edition 8s......very awesome!
I've been talking headphones with you for years. Now I can help you with your purchase:) Sales Specialist & Headphone Guru @ Headphones.com
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post #2 of 14
9/28/09 at 10:33pm
Well that's encouraging for the Ed 8. How's the tone, though?
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post #3 of 14
9/28/09 at 10:35pm
Now that you are familiar with that segment of the track, can you try the hd800 and see if you can identify the lossless and lossy?
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post #4 of 14
9/28/09 at 10:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by donunus View Post
Now that you are familiar with that segment of the track, can you try the hd800 and see if you can identify the lossless and lossy?
That's a good idea..... I will do that later tonight!.......


As far as the tone........they are wonderful headphones. They have a very unique transient response. I feel like when you're listening to the Ed8 you are less aware of how great it is than you are when you are listening to the HD800. I prefer the HD800 overall in terms of sound quality alone, but the Ed8 seem to have a very revealing and fast treble region....which is not laid back as Headroom describes on their site.

I will check the HD800 in the next hour......even if the HD800 do not reveal this difference I will probably still prefer the HD800.....it sounds overall more genuine to the music for me, even if not as "high resolution"....strange I know.
I've been talking headphones with you for years. Now I can help you with your purchase:) Sales Specialist & Headphone Guru @ Headphones.com
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post #5 of 14
9/29/09 at 1:03am
I'm very interested in knowing how it will come out with the hd800 since those are likely to be my next headphones. I wouldn't want to rip to lossy at all anymore if the hd800s were capable of making them sound like crap.
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post #6 of 14
9/29/09 at 3:51am
Cymbals are where I can usually pick lossy from lossless, but I've done it on a variety of headphones. Once you know what to listen for, you can usually nail comparisons.
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post #7 of 14
9/29/09 at 5:06am
Yeah, cymbals seems to be one of the instruments lossy codecs struggle to achieve full transparency.
Seems like lossless is your way ahead...
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post #8 of 14
9/29/09 at 4:16pm
I did similar tests when I bought the K701s. I imported an Arvo Part track at five different bitrates including lossless, made a playlist on iTunes and played it on random. I was pretty good at identifying the lossless and the lowest bit rate: it was the ones in the middle that were most difficult to tell apart.

I'm surprised that you haven't been able to do this reliably before now, David.
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post #9 of 14
9/30/09 at 3:18am
So what happened with the hd800 and the lossy files?
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post #10 of 14
9/30/09 at 3:29am
I can tell the difference between 320 and lossless with the majority of well recorded audio with my meager 780s, I'd of thought the HD800s and the likes would of picked up on it but maybe it's an Ultrasone thing? What I do to test is take a segment of a track in goldwave, loop it, and listen to it with different headphones both lossy and 320.
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post #11 of 14
10/1/09 at 9:48am
cmon DavidMahler what were the results of the hd800 test
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post #12 of 14
10/1/09 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
Ok................with the HD800 I was able to tell 17 out of 21 times running the same passage with the exact same test.

I wouldn't archive my music in lossy format if the HD800 are going to be in play.....if you rip lossless you can always convert to lossy afterwards:-)

I think the treble region of the Ed8 is a little more revealing than the HD800, BUT not necessarily better.....
I've been talking headphones with you for years. Now I can help you with your purchase:) Sales Specialist & Headphone Guru @ Headphones.com
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post #13 of 14
10/1/09 at 9:52pm
aaahhh so still you can hear a difference. With my low end setup... EMU0404 USB, Little Dot Mk2 and HD580, I only think I can hear a difference in the latest itunes 192vbr vs flac but cant prove it in foobar abx. But then again it might depend on the song/sample tested. Maybe i should try the song you are testing to see if my ears can hear a difference with my current setup. Would it be too much trouble if you could upload the few seconds of the flac or alac you are testing? Or basically what part of Josie were you listening to? Was it the standard album edition? I'd like to test it myself.
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post #14 of 14
10/2/09 at 1:10am
mistake clicking this thread. now i want to hear that myself
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