Too much weight is given to how much information is conveyed by an FR graph IMO, FR graphs don't factor in the time domain at all and don't measure how accurately the transducer reproduces complex signals like music (as compared to the single tone sweep FR measurements use in general). It's...

Nah, I don't think you need to do either. If you are a mixing/mastering engineer you can do what I'm describing by ear very quickly, but you don't need such listening skills to watch the graphic visualizer and figure out what sounds look like mapped out on the graph. Experiment with big peaks...

Right, of course you aren't going to get good results if you aren't identifying and targeting distinct problems, you need to know what your target is before engaging. I'll try using my EQ tuning of the QDC V14 as an example to explain my strategy. I used 6 filters here to address certain...

I'm a bit curious about what your specific problems are. What are you trying to solve and what filters are you applying to solve them? "Smearing" as you describe it, sounds like IMD and aliasing caused by adding amplitude without compensating by dropping input gain. Your issues are vague to this...

@Dalmonegrig You remember how I had the idea that SBC was inferior to AptX innately? I tested that assumption by doing a double blind test using recordings of the same song using each codec at max bit rate, I can't tell a difference. That doesn't mean there can't be a reason codecs change audio...

The qualitative study I linked to by kamedo2 differs from that conclusion, notable degradation of signal quality at 128k AAC is observed using the 27 testing samples of music and significant degradation at 237k SBC using those same test samples. Bigshot and gregorio seem to also concur that 192k...

I agree, 18kHz is irrelevant for most of us who lost that hearing range long ago or even never had it. But 15k gets into the audibility range, I can still hear just under 16k. The ABX testing I did suggests the difference is pretty much imperceptible for most recordings, but some tracks with...

Do you happen to measure some other characteristics besides THD and FR? I'm curious about how this HP performs with a 300Hz square wave, a Dirac impulse, and 88 tone IMD test. Obviously they do not measure up to E-stats with such a high comparative THD, but maybe the secret sauce in the HP...

According to that blog post, the codecs reproduce evenly up to around 17kHz with 16/44.1 and 15kHz at 24/96 unless it's LDAC. The differences show up in measurements, but in listening it doesn't really matter unless the bitrate drops below 2/3 the max bitrate. From blind testing done last year...

@gregorio The codecs are not reproducing the entire range evenly up to 20k or to the nyquist frequency of 44.1k or 96k, and the graphs indicate a brick wall starting at 14k to 15k and sharply decreasing after that, which looks like a brick wall filter to me. I did an ABX with recordings of...

For FLAC, ALAC, WAV, use LDAC. Other codecs remove content past 14kHz. For MP3, AAC, OGG, whatever other lossy encoding, use these or LDAC, makes no difference on the codec end. Choose whatever makes you hear your preferred sound. Try them, use if you like. Pretty much.

https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,124080.0.html http://soundexpert.org/articles/-/blogs/audio-quality-of-bluetooth-aptx From what I'm seeing and my own ABX test, sufficiently high bitrate levels are indistinguishable from one another (192k AAC, 320k+ SBC, 352k AptX), with degrading...

How much of that difference is from the codec vs the IEM? Gotta use the same IEM, I was switching between two codecs with the same HP.

14kHz brick wall filters are audible if you aren't hearing impaired. I hear up to 16kHz reliably. Older folks might not be able to hear that of course. 17kHz is arguably irrelevant, although some musicians I've known were able to hear up to 18kHz reliably, they were outliers.

TL;DR from the blog post: lossy files are ok on any codex (except maybe SBC if you are extremely sensitive to IMD) because the brick wall filter hits above 17kHz, lossless files have audible loss on any codec but LDAC 990k/909k because FR above 14kHz gets brick wall filtered. In effect, LDAC...