Hydrogenaudio Listening Tests
From time to time, HydrogenAudio members have been conducting listening tests, either public ones or private ones. These listening test should be valuable in gauging the performance of various digital audio techniques, e.g. compression, transcoding, etc., at a certain point in time.
It should be noted that these tests may become obsolete by newer enhancements in the techniques. So please ensure that there aren't newer tests before drawing conclusions.
This page contains links to Listening Tests carried out by various members of HydrogenAudio.
When you read the test results, you may happen upon many unfamiliar terminologies, especially concerning artifacts. ff123's Artifact Training Page is the place to go to understand what these 'artifacts' are all about.
Note: There are no such things as listening tests for Lossless compression. There are only performance tests (e.g. compression ration, encode/decode speed, etc). So, check out the Lossless comparison page instead.
Format-specific Tests
All tests sorted by date, with older ones at top. All dates are in ISO8601 format.
AAC
| Date | Title Samples |
Performed by | Type | Codecs | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-12-09 | Ahead vs Apple 128-kbps Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | iTunes 4.1.052, 4.7.042; Nero 2.5.9.7, 2.9.998 CBR, 2.9.998 VBR |
HA Thread |
| 2005-09-05 | 48- & 64-kbps HE-AAC Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | CT aacPlus v.2 48- & 64-kbps Helix 11.0.0.1897, Nero 3.2.0.20 VBR |
HA Thread |
| 2006-02-05 | 48-kbps HE-AAC Classical |
Ivan Dimkovic | Public | Nero HE-AAC v1 & v2 | HA Thread |
| 2006-02-20 | 48-kbps HE-AAC General |
Gabriel | Public | 3gpp (v1), CT (v1 & v2), Nero (v1 & v2) | HA Thread Complete Result |
MP3
| Date | Title Samples |
Performed by | Type | Codecs | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-01-18 | Dithering Test (1) Special |
Guruboolez | Private | MP3 Decoders: MAD, LAME, Fraunhofer, foobar2000 |
HA Thread |
| 2004-11-15 | 130-kbps LAME rjamorim |
Guruboolez | Private | LAME 3.90.3 ABR, 3.96.1 ABR, 3.96.1 VBR | HA Thread |
| 2005-01-11 | 128-kbps LAME ff123 |
Guruboolez | Private | LAME 3.90.3, 3.96.1, 3.97a5 | HA Thread |
| 2005-10-17 | LAME 3.98 -V5 Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | LAME 3.98: -V5, -V5 --vbr-new, -V5 --vbr-new --athaa-sensitivity 1 |
HA Thread |
Notes: (1) Performed under extreme listening conditions not reproducible on daily listening.
MPC
| Date | Title Samples |
Performed by | Type | Codecs | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-06-18 | --standard Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | 1.01j, 1.15u | HA Thread |
Vorbis
| Date | Title Samples |
Performed by | Type | Codecs | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-06-18 | 128-kbps ff123/rjamorim |
Guruboolez | Private | GT2 & PCVS | HA Thread |
| 2004-06-17 | 160-kbps Special |
Guruboolez | Private | CVS, GT3b2, aoTuVb2, aoTuVb2+QK | HA Thread |
| 2004-02-05 | -q4 Transients |
Guruboolez | Private | RC3 2002-03, RC3 2002-04, 1.01, 1.01 QK2 | HA Thread |
WMA
| Date | Title Samples |
Performed by | Type | Codecs | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-06-18 | 128-kbps ff123/rjamorim |
Guruboolez | Private | WMA9 Standard & Pro | HA Thread |
Multiformat Tests
| Date | Title Samples |
Performed by | Type | Codecs | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-10-11 | 130-kbps Classical (Baroque) |
Guruboolez | Private | AAC (FAAC, PsyTel, Nero, QuickTime) MP3 LAME 3.90.3, MPC 1.14, Vorbis GT3b1, WMA9 Pro |
HA Thread |
| 2003-12-13 | 128-kbps Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | AAC (iTunes, Nero, FAAC), Vorbis 1.01, WMA9, MP3 LAME 3.93.1 |
HA Thread |
| 2004-07-12 | 175-kbps Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | Vorbis Megamix -q5,50, -q5,99 -q6,00 MP3 LAME 3.97a3 -V3, -V2, MPC -q5 |
|
| 2004-12-09 | 130-kbps Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | AAC Nero 2.9.9.998 Vorbis aoTuVb3 |
|
| 2005-03-05 | 140-kbps VBR Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | AAC Nero 3.0.0.4, Vorbis 1.1, QK28 | |
| 2005-03-17 | 256-kbps Transcode from MP3 subset of ff123 |
Guruboolez | Private | AAC iTunes 4.7, MP3 LAME 3.97a8 MPC 1.15u, Vorbis aoTuVb3, WavPack 4.2b3 Lossy |
|
| 2005-07-11 | 80-kbps Various |
Guruboolez | Private | LAME MP3, AAC-HE and -LC, Vorbis aoTuV, WMA Std |
HA Thread |
| 2005-08-09 | 96-kbps Classical & Various |
Guruboolez | Private | LAME MP3, AAC,Vorbis aoTuV (Lancer), MPC, WMA | Hardware.fr thread (in French) |
| 2005-08-22 | 180-kbps Classical |
Guruboolez | Private | AAC, MP3, MPC, Vorbis aoTuVb4 | HA Thread |
| 2006-01-13 | 128-kbps General |
Sebastian Mares | Public | iTunes & Nero AAC, LAME MP3, Vorbis aoTuV, WMA Pro |
HA Thread Complete Result |
| 2006-11-22 | 48-kbps General |
Sebastian Mares | Public | Vorbis aoTuV, Nero AAC, WMA Pro, WMA Standard |
HA Thread |
External Tests
Other people also held listening tests outside of Hydrogenaudio (although the organizer of the tests are usually HA members :)
So, check out the following sites:
- ff123's site on audio testing and listening tests (most recent test 2002-07-27)
- Roberto's Public Listening Tests (most recent test 2004-07-11)
- Sebastian Mares' Listening Tests (most recent test updated 2006-11-22)
- SoundExpert Listening Tests (continually updated)