Lossless Audio Does Not Sound Better Than MP3?

The author is too late to the party. We are in the era of tidal vs qobuz wars. Lossless vs MP3 were the battles long done and dusted, why pick the skeletons now 🤣
I thought so too.
But the question hangs in the air and going by the various responses above it still requires some ventilation….

I realised I never AB tested the same tracks on Qobuz and Spotify in order to discover the differences myself before. I just took the word of experts for granted.
Removing bias by blind testing requires a friend with patience and time too.
Yes, measurements, data on compression, dynamic range etc are all possible, but the human ears and the brain are the gatekeepers to our impressions, opinions and emotions when it comes to music. Sometimes we seem to have a mind of our own!

Questions like these still perplex:
- Can I hear more dynamic range sometimes but like it less? Why?
- Why does pumped up (louder) compressed music sometimes sound better than a quieter HiRes version or the same song?
- How system/set up dependent is this?
- Does it vary with the type;genre of music?
- How much does the quality of the original recording influence these impressions?
- Why did Philips and Sony decide 24/48 (CD quality) as more than adequate given the limits of human hearing range?

What better place to explore such important and life altering questions than a forum like this full of experienced audio enthusiasts, experts ?

The plot thickens, The skeletons are moving and throwing up some dust. Blind faith? Never! 😎
 
audiophiles are habituated to sweariing. They swear

1) cable x is better than y when cost of x > y
2) ethernet cables make a difference.
3) class a is better than all other class
4) R2R sounds better than delta sigma
5) valve sounds better than solid state. It doesn't matter that high end is lost.
6) LPS makes a huge difference powering puny devices consuming < 100mA current
7) For music you should listen to 2 channel audio. Multi channel is blasphemy for music. Doesn't matter that music can never be recorded original to its form due to limitation of the microphone and recording methodology
8) AVR is bad for music and ASR is bad for audiophiles
...
∞) ... xxx yyy zzz
“there are lot of things that you cannot measure”
 

... but then, have we improved the measurements beyond all doubts? apparently not 🙂
btw, DAC guy's word is not the final one. gn everyone
 
not sure why @keith_correa finds it so funny. is it because you agree or disagree? 🙂
My guess is that the mystery behind why we can't measure is more baffling than quantum physics, theory of relativity and life and the cosmos ing general. Science has advanced so much but it still cannot measure things in the audio world.
 
My guess is that the mystery behind why we can't measure is more baffling than quantum physics, theory of relativity and life and the cosmos ing general. Science has advanced so much but it still cannot measure things in the audio world.
probably it is not so baffling if we acknowlegde that there are so many things we don't know about. we dont have to get into quantum physics. why people perceive things as they do. after all, ears are sensors and they have their own dynamic range and limitations. so are the auditory systems in our brains. after all they interpret how we perceive a sound wave as neutral/good/bad/etc.
 
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My guess is that the mystery behind why we can't measure is more baffling than quantum physics, theory of relativity and life and the cosmos ing general. Science has advanced so much but it still cannot measure things in the audio world.
unfortunately there is no way yet to measure illusions, hallucinations and placebo. It’s not limited to audio world.
 
probably it is not so baffling if we acknowlegde that there are so many things we don't know about. we dont have to get into quantum physics. why people perceive things as they do. after all, ears are sensors and they have their own dynamic range and limitations. so are the auditory systems in our brains. after all they interpret how we perceive a sound wave as neutral/good/bad/etc.
If you want to go there, QM has no theory to explain the mass of the neutrino. QM has no way to reconcile with GR. So is QM bogus or GR?
 
aah once we do that we could also measure objectively as to which RasMalai is tastier and which mango is better !!
( of course its the Mallika ! 😇 )
I would love to do such measurements and declare whatever result is asked of me!
 
For reference, though I stated this before, my normal listening is about 105-110db at the listening spot.
How long have you been listening at this loudness level?
If this figure is measured using a decibel meter, then you may be knowing the warning about losing ear sensitivity. In which case it become all the more surprising that you can hear all the "difference in details" between lossless and mp3
 
How long have you been listening at this loudness level?
If this figure is measured using a decibel meter, then you may be knowing the warning about losing ear sensitivity. In which case it become all the more surprising that you can hear all the "difference in details" between lossless and mp3
Several concerned FM have warned @Decadent_Spectre of the dangers of such loud listening levels.
He can still read well 😄
 
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