[krismusic]

I am in Orange County, plenty to choose from near me. One place close by wants $150 for a set. My girl in Irvine, is $50.

FWIW my advice is not to skimp on impressions. Key to a good fit.

When I had my first impressions done, the chap said unless you were a musician it would be best to take the impressions with a closed mouth and relaxed jaw, as most of the time you would be listening with your mouth closed so this provided the best fit, and I must say the fit was very, very good.

Just goes to show that we are all different. I had unsuccessful closed mouth impressions several times. It was only when I came across audiologists that used open mouth that all subsequent attempts have been successful.
Incidentally, Nobles advice sheet specifies open mouth.

 

[krismusic]

I wouldn't consider myself as reference material LOL. I'm sure the primary reason for my experience is due to Double Twist's poor compression engine. On that note, my ears can't tell the difference between 44/16 to higher res files except for analog to digital re-masters. My recent purchase of 88/24 Rolling Stones Hot Rocks is amazing!

Now I am confused. I thought that the point of your anecdote was that you had discovered that you could easily tell an uncompressed file.

 

[bflat]

Now I am confused. I thought that the point of your anecdote was that you had discovered that you could easily tell an uncompressed file.

The point of my post was to agree to the prior one on being able to distinguish compressed to lossless. I am in no way stating that I have "golden ears" and can easily discern the differences of the 10 different compression schemes in that experiment.

 

[kalrykh]

No bite block available when I had mine done. After reading nobles instructions, the audiologist had me open and close my mouth repeatedly while the mixture was setting. I'm very pleased with the fit of both my 4c and k10s. but then again, it might be even better had I used a bite block.

 

[Ike1985]

The nearest audiologist is 50 miles away from me.  IMO he did a very good job after realizing what needed to be done, here are my pics.  The bite block wasn't a huge issue, I brought a floss container that measured 1.5", worked fine.  This is my second attempt because before he didn't get much of the exterior ear, this time he did the entire ear from top to bottom, side to side. Looks good to me:
 
 
 

 
 

 

[Watagump]

FWIW my advice is not to skimp on impressions. Key to a good fit.
Just goes to show that we are all different. I had unsuccessful closed mouth impressions several times. It was only when I came across audiologists that used open mouth that all subsequent attempts have been successful.
Incidentally, Nobles advice sheet specifies open mouth.

Price has nothing to do with them fitting. Brannan does them for free at shows.

 

[FullCircle]

Your chap should take some time and read the extensive research around open mouth impressions

 

[krismusic]

The point of my post was to agree to the prior one on being able to distinguish compressed to lossless. I am in no way stating that I have "golden ears" and can easily discern the differences of the 10 different compression schemes in that experiment.

Your original post did seem to indicate that you had inadvertently done a blind A/B test and proved that you could hear the difference between ALAC and 256 MP3. I was interested as over on Sound Science, people are adamant that most people cannot.

 

[Watagump]

Your original post did seem to indicate that you had inadvertently done a blind A/B test and proved that you could hear the difference between ALAC and 256 MP3. I was interested as over on Sound Science, people are adamant that most people cannot.

Thats how I interpreted the first post.

 

[kalrykh]

Your chap should take some time and read the extensive research around open mouth impressions

Naw, we have our own resident expert

 

[bflat]

 
Thats how I interpreted the first post.

I re-read my original post and understand the confusion. I was only speaking about my personal experience and this is based off the same lossless tracks I've been listening for a very long time and know all the nuances. In the "inadvertent" A/B test that I described I was able to discern the difference from lossless to MP3 for my specific tracks. I don't know if my ability to tell the difference would extend to a set of conditions and/or tracks that I am unfamiliar with.
 
Again, I am not claiming to be an expert, and let me re-state that I am not saying my experience is true for everyone nor scientific proof of anything. So simply sharing my experience. Also another correction, back when I experienced this, my lossless format was AIFF. ALAC is what I use more recently.

 

[Ike1985]

Your chap should take some time and read the extensive research around open mouth impressions

 
Are you talking about my audiologist or someone else? =P

 

[Ike1985]

  I re-read my original post and understand the confusion. I was only speaking about my personal experience and this is based off the same lossless tracks I've been listening for a very long time and know all the nuances. In the "inadvertent" A/B test that I described I was able to discern the difference from lossless to MP3 for my specific tracks. I don't know if my ability to tell the difference would extend to a set of conditions and/or tracks that I am unfamiliar with.
 
Again, I am not claiming to be an expert, and let me re-state that I am not saying my experience is true for everyone nor scientific proof of anything. So simply sharing my experience. Also another correction, back when I experienced this, my lossless format was AIFF. ALAC is what I use more recently.

 
Hey friend, your probably using ALAC because your on an iphone, me 2!  I discovered that by using an app called Tuneshell I can play flac without converting to ALAC on my phone.  I use Ifunbox(if your on a mac) to drag and drop the flac files to the Tuneshell folder, although the app also has a clunky wifi transfer procedure.  Finally I use Jriver music management software on my mac so I don't have to use iTunes at all, in fact I've uninstalled iTunes.  So happy now! =P  FYI, I phone can play up to 24bit/48khz flac files.  Now I can just go with the original copies of my flac files and don't have to maintain two copies of every file, one alac and one flac.  No more alac for me! =P  Also no jailbreaking required.

 

[krismusic]

I re-read my original post and understand the confusion. I was only speaking about my personal experience and this is based off the same lossless tracks I've been listening for a very long time and know all the nuances. In the "inadvertent" A/B test that I described I was able to discern the difference from lossless to MP3 for my specific tracks. I don't know if my ability to tell the difference would extend to a set of conditions and/or tracks that I am unfamiliar with.

Again, I am not claiming to be an expert, and let me re-state that I am not saying my experience is true for everyone nor scientific proof of anything. So simply sharing my experience. Also another correction, back when I experienced this, my lossless format was AIFF. ALAC is what I use more recently.

Am I right in thinking that you are now saying that the differences you heard could be explained by deficiencies in Double Twist?

 

[bflat]

Am I right in thinking that you are now saying that the differences you heard could be explained by deficiencies in Double Twist?

If the Double Twist MP3 compression algorithm is poor, then yes it could be. It is meant to sync iOS and Android portable devices, but can also sync to USB drives. I do remember it was set to 256 kbps but not sure about VBR or any other parameters. Double Twist is freeware so you may want to try for yourself. I stopped using it ever since I switched to ALAC.