Can you hear the difference?

[Ron Worley]

Hunh? Speak up, I can't understand you!

[deeder]

I was embedded several times into those planes during my journalist life.

[LeeMo]

My ears are toasted. I am 63 , played loud music , shot pistols in competitions, worked around diesel engines on a towboat for years, I owned a car stereo shop thru the 80's and 90's and built many dB dragsters. My ears scream with tinitus like a turbine at full tilt.
I listened on AKG K240D phones plugged into a Mackie 1202vlz mixer.
I scored 5/6. I missed the first one which teed me off so I listened more carefully on the rest of them. I DID NOT expect to get more that 50/50.

LeeMo

[Structo]

Yes, if we had only known.

Kids know it all so it does no good to advise them just as we didn't take
the advice when we were kids.

Loud rock, 30+ years construction = tinnitus

Most times I can almost tune it out but other times even normal sounds trigger an almost parasitic ultra high distorted ringing that makes listening to music almost painful.

But, do you remember when you were the first kid on the block to own a 100 watt guitar tube amp with a full stack?

[eniam rognab]

i got 4/6 using crappy laptop speakers. probably just chance though...

i have pretty good hearing, never played anything above 50W, havent been to any loud rock concerts and used hearing protection when running a chainsaw growing up.

it kinda sucks at work though because i can hear the HF switchmode power supplies i repair. when we burn them in i often have to leave that section of the warehouse or it gives me a headache. i also compulsively unplug all my chargers when not in use. my Li-ion charger is just torture!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Bob S]

All my life in a factory production environment.
At my last hearing test (press the button when you hear it) I sat with the cans on my ears & waited for it to start.
About 1 minute in the examiner cut in to ask if I knew they had started.
The medical term for my hearing condition is "fucked".

[Structo]

No kidding Bob!

We are becoming our parents.

My mother, bless her heart, started having steady hearing loss starting about her early 70's. (she is now 86)

Instead of ever admitting to having hearing loss and asking someone to repeat what they said, she would simply answer a question or comment with something that had no relationship to the subject at hand.
It was weird.

Vanity does have it's price.

And no, she never got hearing aids.

I'm sure technology has progressed but I seem to have a phobia of having my hearing aids feedback and start howling and being totally oblivious.

Although add in a bit of dementia and all is good.

[jam-mill]

[...]
I'm sure technology has progressed but I seem to have a phobia of having my hearing aids feedback and start howling and being totally oblivious.
[...]

Indeed, the technology has advanced considerably since I started looking at hearing aids just 5 years ago. They can now use rechargeable batteries; all you do is clean them and put them in the charging station overnight to get a full charge (lasts 12+ hours for me). Also, the 'howling' only occurs if you deliberately cover your ears when you are wearing the devices.

I've had my $3500 hearing aids for almost a year now and have, in addition to several of the standard 'speech' modes, 2 music-specific settings for "audio engineer" mode to allow me to mix properly. This particular device breaks up a range of the frequency spectrum into 16 bands (audiologists refer to them as 'channels') and allows a contoured adjustment of those bands to compensate for individual loss.

The audiologist was able to properly 'tune' the hearing instruments for my needs and having the various modes is really useful; although, I do not use them in a live performance situation (drummers play plenty loud enough ).

[jaysg]

I flew C-130s for 20+ years. I'm not even gonna try this.

Anyone ever ask you why cargo planes or turbo props have to be so loud? So why do they have to give us crap about guitar amps?

I lost my high end from middle ear infections before I ever played electric. C'est la guerre.

[EtherealWidow]

25 years old, 2/6 correct... that's unfortunate.

[Structo]

My problem with listening to them for me was I'm not sure what to listen for.

Do you listen for more clarity, a fuller sound, crisper highs?

To me they all sounded pretty good but I think I could tell which one was the lowest quality but had trouble deciding which of the other two were better.

I used to have almost perfect pitch but these days I'm lucky to be able to hear at all.

[martin manning]

My problem with listening to them for me was I'm not sure what to listen for.

Do you listen for more clarity, a fuller sound, crisper highs?

There are some tips in the article for this, the best of which are listen high and listen low. For me it's the fullness of the bass line and how much the cymbals, snare, etc. come out.

[xtian]

The only issue I've ever noticed with 128Mbps MP3 is the garbled, swirly, under-water sounding artifacts that arise during very low volume passages, like fade outs, or especially in classical, pianissimo passages. And that was years ago, before LAME became more capable.

[Structo]

Yes, I have heard that before.
You described it perfectly.

[EtherealWidow]

I think it just goes to show that there's a lot of formats that are more than acceptable and that most people can't tell the difference. At the end of the day as long as the artists know how to write a good tune the audio engineer can get away with quite a bit.