"considering that 16-bit, 48kHz exceeds the threshold of human hearing even for “golden ears,”
Um, no it doesn’t. 16-Bit dynamic range is 96 decibels, 24-bit is 144 decibels. 96 cuts off quite a bit of an average person’s hearing range. A/B a 16 and 24 bit recording and you can hear it easily over even modest headphones.
“Results showed a small but statistically significant ability of test subjects to discriminate high resolution content, and this effect increased dramatically when test subjects received extensive training.”
Basically, people can just barely detect high res audio but it’s not much better than a coin flip. If you have lots of experience you’re more accurate but not by a whole lot.
Anyway 48kHz sampling can produce up to 24kHz and the human limit is like 20kHz. Most songs don’t have 96db of dynamic range, and 120db is hearing damage, so the idea that the average person can easily hear the difference is not true.
That’s why I didn’t mention the sample rate. You aren’t going to get really anything back increasing to 96 khz. But I promise you increasing the bit depth leads to a noticeable change in the perception of the recording. You’re not going to get anything from modern pop since it’s compressed to hell and back, but find a good recording of an album you’ve listened to a lot and find some decent, wired headphones and try an A/B of a 16 and 24 bit mix. You’ll see what I mean.
Thank you, that was an interesting breakdown. I really appreciate his methodology. I’m going to deep dive into anything he has posted. Though he doesn’t come to the same conclusion I do, the takeaway is:
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Yes, there is noticeable sound loss when converting a 24 bit sample to 16 bit.
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You can really screw with a 24 bit sample and still have a listenable file, presumably because of the bit depth.
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Recording and mastering in 24 bit benefits classical music reproduction, and I would argue, any acoustic music reproduction. So, anything with a vocal, drum kit, acoustic guitar, etc.
Since the video is about dither specifically, he does conclude that mastering to 16 bit gives the technician a sturdier product when played back on the myriad of modern equipment we have. It’s arguable, sure, but since this an audiophile sub…
Really though, thanks for posting the video. Deep dive in 3, 2…
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Decibels?
Yup I think So.
It’s the Dynamic Range. The difference between the quiet and loudest parts of the sound (measured in decibels).
You can see the dynamic range of your audio by putting it in Audacity/Tenacity and seeing it’s quiet parts and loud parts.
(I’m not well versed in audio. If I made a mistake, I’ll fix it.)