[FutureHegemon]

I just claimed my status as a Golden Ears! It was fun, but at parts I got frustrated. I used B&W P7s driven by my iPad Air 2.

As with most others, the toughest part by far was that 18 band EQ test. I probably spent 45 minutes or an hour on it. I ended up taking notes on what I heard with each frequency to make it through. Working from memory was just too tough for me.

I also had a little trouble with the artifacts, HFE, and reverb sections.

Loudness, bass, spacing, and noise sections were the easiest.

I realized that my hearing with the highs is definitely not what it used to be. I'm only 28 — I thought I still had a while before I had to deal with that, but I guess years of standing in the front row at concerts had to catch up sometime. It was a good time! Glad I got the opportunity to do it, and I feel I learned a little as well!

 

[MacacoDoSom]

Everything was so amazingly easy... until I got stuck at the 96Kbps...
 
...any thoughts?  
 
I usually could hear the MP3 artifacts... but in this example... I just can't... when I reach 128Kbps I keep getting back to 96Kbps

 

[AKGunkie]

  Everything was so amazingly easy... until I got stuck at the 96Kbps...
 
...any thoughts?  
 
I usually could hear the MP3 artifacts... but in this example... I just can't... when I reach 128Kbps I keep getting back to 96Kbps

Guitar String plucking, Low Bass detail, High treble "decay" or clarity in cymbals. It is quite difficult, Don't spend too much time with it, it's best to listen in short intervals. 

 

[MacacoDoSom]

Finally I've passed it... but I had to fiddle with EQ (more treble) 

  Guitar String plucking, Low Bass detail, High treble "decay" or clarity in cymbals. It is quite difficult, Don't spend too much time with it, it's best to listen in short intervals. 

 

[maverickronin]

I started this but got sick of the sample they use halfway through the coloration test.
 
Guess I'm not motivated enough. 

 

[MacacoDoSom]

uauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu it took me 2 days... but I finally did it...
 
The 9 cut or boost bands and the MP3 artifacts took me a while.... overall its easy...except these 2
 
 

 

[MacacoDoSom]

  Finally I've passed it... but I had to fiddle with EQ (more treble) 

  Guitar String plucking, Low Bass detail, High treble "decay" or clarity in cymbals. It is quite difficult, Don't spend too much time with it, it's best to listen in short intervals. 

...thanks for the suggestion, it worked...

 

[AndroidVageta]

I just finished...only one I had an issue with was the MP3 artifacts when I came to realize that the best part to listen to is the horn/trumpet. The incorrect one always is a bit duller here. The brighter louder ones are the good ones. 
 
Once I focused on this I breezed through it. The vocals and high-hat are good for the first and second question but move to horn for the last two.
 
Just figured I'd post this in case anyone sees it!
 
Edit: Forgot about reverberation in Silver. Listening to it again...first and second one are pretty easy but the rest are so minute or just flat wrong. I can switch between all three and notice a distinct difference in one but NOPE...incorrect. Doesn't help that the samples are so long and different. Can make it hard to really distinguish the subtle differences. Especially with the bass string in the song. One song will have a noticeable increase or decrease in volume with it but that's not the wrong one.
 
Very odd to say the least. First two I always get right but past that it seems to not even know it's own answer haha!

 

[gepardcv]

I love how the compression artifacts section is consistently cited as one of the two hardest problems of the Golden Ears challenge: 128k is nearly indistinguishable from 160k and sounds almost perfect. Yet people still claim to hear differences between 320k and lossless... We don't know which encoders are used in all cases, of course.

 

[AKGunkie]

I love how the compression artifacts section is consistently cited as one of the two hardest problems of the Golden Ears challenge: 128k is nearly indistinguishable from 160k and sounds almost perfect. Yet people still claim to hear differences between 320k and lossless... We don't know which encoders are used in all cases, of course.

It's also with tracks people aren't particularly familiar with, encoders are very good nowadays. But with storage so cheap; what's the point in taking the risk of having an inferior file?

 

[sonitus mirus]

It's also with tracks people aren't particularly familiar with, encoders are very good nowadays. But with storage so cheap; what's the point in taking the risk of having an inferior file?

With streaming options so robust and widely available, what is the point of storage? It has been over 2 years now and I my library of over 35 million songs has me in musical bliss.

There are plenty of different options available, choose whatever works best for your situation. I don't see any risk at all. I'm absolutely enjoying my music now.

 

[maricius]

I love how the compression artifacts section is consistently cited as one of the two hardest problems of the Golden Ears challenge: 128k is nearly indistinguishable from 160k and sounds almost perfect. Yet people still claim to hear differences between 320k and lossless... We don't know which encoders are used in all cases, of course.

I found it pretty easy… though the 320kbps vs lossless is another matter

 

[WraithApe]

An entertaining diversion! How is anyone doing the 8 band frequency test though? I'm stuck on 93% and can't get past this one. I think I'm right in saying Echoic Memory is only a couple of seconds, so how can anyone remember the sound of the sample with a specific frequency boost/cut several seconds after going through the training section? Any tips?

 
 
Someone above mentioned taking notes but what are you noting down exactly?

 

[kraken2109]

  An entertaining diversion! How is anyone doing the 8 band frequency test though? I'm stuck on 93% and can't get past this one. I think I'm right in saying Echoic Memory is only a couple of seconds, so how can anyone remember the sound of the sample with a specific frequency boost/cut several seconds after going through the training section? Any tips?

 
 
Someone above mentioned taking notes but what are you noting down exactly?

It's just practice. As a sound engineer I've got fairly good at this because I spend a lot of time with EQ. You start to recognise what common frequencies sound like.

 

[MacacoDoSom]

  An entertaining diversion! How is anyone doing the 8 band frequency test though? I'm stuck on 93% and can't get past this one. I think I'm right in saying Echoic Memory is only a couple of seconds, so how can anyone remember the sound of the sample with a specific frequency boost/cut several seconds after going through the training section? Any tips?

 
 
Someone above mentioned taking notes but what are you noting down exactly?

It take a lot of training, if you're not used to it it will take some time (some days? weeks?) if you have the patience, you'll get there...