Newbie Testing question

[JFS737]

Hi all,
Been lurking for years. I searched but could not find anything so maybe you can point me or provide insight. If I were to wish to do some critical listening (192 kpbs vs CD), I am wondering if I'd be better served by headphones or speakers? I know the room is less than perfect but really am wondering which is a better plan (or maybe neither will have the build quality to reveal anything?). My system is Yamaha RX-A4A, Goldenear Triton 3+, and grado SR-60. (Soon to get a Hypex amp from Buckey but not yet!). Also it'll be served by a Bluesound Nano sending ripped FLAC files and MP3's saved to an external disc.
Is this system up to resolving the music enough to discern? What to use? Speakers or headphones in general and in my case?
THANKS for any thoughts!

 

[TLS Guy]

Hi all,
Been lurking for years. I searched but could not find anything so maybe you can point me or provide insight. If I were to wish to do some crtical listening (192 kpbs vs CD), I am wondering if I'd be better served by headphones or speakers? I know the room is less than perfect but really am wondering which is a better plan (or maybe neither will have the build quality to reveal anything?). My system is Yamaha RX-A4A, Goldenear Triton 3+, and grado SR-60. (Soon to get a Hypex amp from Buckey but not yet!). Also it'll be served by a Bluesound Nano sending ripped FLAC files and MP3's saved to an external disc.
Is this system up to resolving the music enough to discern? What to use? Speakers or headphones in general and in my case?

I think it depends how your brain is wired. Some people really enjoy headphones, most don't. I can not listen to headphones very long, and only use them for editing a critical splice while editing. In general most prefer good speakers.

 

[Kingnoob]

Hi all,
Been lurking for years. I searched but could not find anything so maybe you can point me or provide insight. If I were to wish to do some critical listening (192 kpbs vs CD), I am wondering if I'd be better served by headphones or speakers? I know the room is less than perfect but really am wondering which is a better plan (or maybe neither will have the build quality to reveal anything?). My system is Yamaha RX-A4A, Goldenear Triton 3+, and grado SR-60. (Soon to get a Hypex amp from Buckey but not yet!). Also it'll be served by a Bluesound Nano sending ripped FLAC files and MP3's saved to an external disc.
Is this system up to resolving the music enough to discern? What to use? Speakers or headphones in general and in my case?
THANKS for any thoughts!

I use headphones at night for music if everyone is sleeping.
Is the amp for the speakers they seem high sensitivity? You running out of power ?
Best you can do is compare both. My sennheiser hd 350bt don’t quite have the bass if my other setups using speakers. Otherwise they are pretty decent in comparison. Occasionally they cause ear pain but most of the time I’m fine. So they must be brighter Then my Klipsch icons. I looked into Goldenear and def tech but those towers were heavy! And expensive.

 

[JFS737]

I love my Tritons, the bass is really tight and they don't fatigue. My Grado's are low end, but seem even more detailed than the speakers. I wonder if that's not just a thing with headphones vs speakers. They don't have the same bass however.

 

[m. zillch]

If I were to wish to do some critical listening (192 kpbs vs CD)

There's no audible difference between music recorded at CD res (uncompressed PCM 44.1kHz/16-bit) and 192kHz in proper testing. It doesn't matter what ears and gear you use; what matters is if you are a human being or not. [. . .And if one understands what constitutes a proper test. It must be blind, precisely level matched by instrumentation, guaranteed to be from the exact same master, if there is fast switching between the two they must be perfectly synchronized or the latency of one will make it stick out like a sore thumb and defeat your attempt to make the test truly blind, and the results must show meaningful statistical significance.]

 

[Joe B]

Hi all,
Been lurking for years. I searched but could not find anything so maybe you can point me or provide insight. If I were to wish to do some critical listening (192 kpbs vs CD), I am wondering if I'd be better served by headphones or speakers? I know the room is less than perfect but really am wondering which is a better plan (or maybe neither will have the build quality to reveal anything?). My system is Yamaha RX-A4A, Goldenear Triton 3+, and grado SR-60. (Soon to get a Hypex amp from Buckey but not yet!). Also it'll be served by a Bluesound Nano sending ripped FLAC files and MP3's saved to an external disc.
Is this system up to resolving the music enough to discern? What to use? Speakers or headphones in general and in my case?
THANKS for any thoughts!

When I compared audio formats in the past I used my headphone rig rather than my 5.1 system. I downloaded files from 2L-the Nordic Sound's "Test Bench". The files were of the same piece of classical music, all from the same master, but of varying formats (44.1/16, 96/24, 192/24, DSD, 2xDSD). These different files were made from a 352.8/24 master. Playing back in foobar2000 allowed me to switch between files in a fraction of a second.
As a "test" for my own personal edification, I believe this approach was sound (pun intended...I taught 6th grade).

What gear you use and how you use it does matter. Listening on your speakers, you need to ensure that you are bypassing all DSP functions and bass management (if DSP is on, your AVR is probably converting the incoming digital signal to 32 bit for the DSP chip). If your Yamaha AVR has something like a "pure direct mode" where DSP and bass management are "off", listening to your speakers should be a good way to go. My AVR at the time (Anthem 520), could not handle DSD nor was it friendly for turning on/off DSP functions and bass management.

Have fun!

 

[m. zillch]

Hi-res sound has been around for many decades. If it was truly audible scientists would have found at least one individual who can hear it by now (under controlled/verified conditions) and named them.

Some marketers such as 2L took down their bench test page page once they saw individuals like me exposing the public to how to easily use the files* to conduct valid, proper double blind, level matched, synchronized, statistically analyzed tests such as with the free Foobar component "ABX":

*assuming they are indeed truly from the same master and precisely level matched/ synchronized.