Yes, this is my website. And yes, I am 100% sure: there is no dithering applied. Actually, I did apply dithering first, but the fade out (at the end of the extract) would then fade out into audible noise (with or without shaping). So, it would have been very easy for people to find out which was...

No... because noise shaping would add distinctive noise in this case (during the fade out at the end of the sample... one would fade into noise)... and make the blind test too easy to succeed ;-)

Just a little intrusion here, to tell that the 16-bit v/s 8-bit blind test page that has been often cited in this thread, has been updated. Now using Neil Young's own music. I am such a bad guy indeed...   http://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_16vs8bit_NeilYoung.php

  http://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_abspolarity.php

Raise the very first slider (the brown one) on this one   http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/desertedSoundscapeGenerator.php   Some of my headphones were able to output the very low frequency rumble (HD600), some did not produce any sound, or only harmonics when the volume is boosted...

  This test should be performed with the headphones over your head. In such a condition, your ears will be the first piece of equipment to disrupt ;-)   If you did so, your headphones should be safe.

Quote:   You are totally right. And for the purpose of building a convincing demo I used 8-bit files, but the principles are exactly the same for 16-bit files (only 48 dB quieter). Have a listen here, the audio files are online :   http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_dithering.php...

16bit vs 8bit, the myth exploded (again) !   http://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_16vs8bit.php

Some blind tests demos that can be performed online related to the topic of this thread...   http://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_index.php   (find the smallest difference in sound levels you can reliably detect, in pitch, dynamic range, etc.)

Quote:   The reconstructed path is the one that has the smallest bandwidth. Any other path will generate frequencies that are higher than half the sampling frequency. So, it is more of a "frequency" state than "energy" state.   Actually, the output waveform has not to "know" anything...

Some interesting "Equal Loudness Curve" experimements at hearing threshold levels, can be performed online:   http://mynoise.net   1. Calibrate http://mynoise.net/calibration.php 2. Play back any noise (such as the rain noise...

Quote:   Beware, Audition's square wave suffers from a lot - I really mean a lot - of aliasing. Detailed information is available here :   http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_benchmark.php

Quote:   Bit depth is for dynamics (such as here : http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_dynamiccheck.php) - not frequency response. Visit the link and check out if you can hear the lowest dynamics (it's a 16-bit test). If you can, then you may need 24-bit resolution...

As already written, a 44.1kHz file is able to capture frequencies up to 22 kHz (half the sample rate). The human hearing is limited to 20 kHz anyway, sometimes a little higher (young people with excellent hearing), but often lower. So 44.1 kHz is definitely fine, especially for an iTune library...

Have you tried these headphones audio test files?   http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php

Quote:   http://wavtones.com generates downloadable noise files on the fly - without any degradation - offering an extremely wide variety of noises (white, pink, brown, blue, impulse, ...) and sample rates up to 96kHz. It even produces filtered noises (with different filter slopes) and...

Quote:   Create those sine burst waveforms here at a fraction of the price : http://www.wavtones.com/functiongenerator.php (actually, it's free, when no envelope is set).

Quote:   Nicely wrapped up!

Quote:   To test bass on headphones, nothing beats a... bass test : http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php (check out the very first test in the series)

Quote:   Not the measurements, but the test tones :   http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_dual.php (online generator) http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_imd.php (subjective IMD test)

Quote:   Right, it doesn't matter. One does hardly hear anything below 20 Hz, but the harmonic distortion in the audible range. People are often confused between hearing a real 20 Hz sine wave, and hearing something when a 20 Hz sine wave is fed into the system. The "something" is often...

Quote:   That's a good advise. There is another page with sweep tones but at higher sample rates, that might help too:   http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_highdefinitionaudio.php

Quote:   The ultimate transient here:   http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_impulse.php   ;-)

Thank you for your kind words, Halcyon!   Quote:   You are totally right. But more than driver artifacts at these frequencies, aliasing from the DAC seems the main culprit to me. The only subjective test I came with, to this this, is this...

Pay attention, I was very surprised when I found out that the sound of headphones can change a big time, when fitting different earpads.   It happened when I exchanged the pads between a Beyerdynamic DT-880 (I like the soft pads, but I didn't like how the headphone sounds) and a cheap...