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24 bits vs. 16 bits are there audible differences?

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24 bits vs. 16 bits are there audible differences?

The experiment

The author of the experiment plans to determine if there are audible differences between 24 and 16 bit audio trying to use an objectivist approach.

For this, it selects 3 audio fragments at 96/24, 2 of them edited by the renowned 2L label and a third belonging to the well-known Goldberg Variations performed by Kimiko Ishizaka. Particularly difficult passages are selected for their musical content or dynamic characteristics.

16-bit versions are generated from the 3 original samples, maintaining the sampling rate of 96 khz. Simple dithering is used in the process. In addition, special measures are taken (addition of noise at -140dB, offsets, use of flac compression with more or less efficiency) to avoid that the characteristics of the files themselves could reveal their nature.

The resulting audio files maintain a DR of between 12 and 14, with no evidence of clipping or compression of the dynamics.

The 6 files are arranged so that both versions of each of them are sequentially reproduced, but it is not known a priori if the 16 or 24 bit version sounds first.

In total 140 people participate, who must:

– Determine when one or the other version of each fragment sounds.
– Indicate the degree of certainty with which they have responded.
– Explain if they have used an ABX type comparison tool or similar.
– Provide a series of data, let’s say demographic, including whether they are musicians, have professional experience or not in audio editing and if they regularly analyze equipment.
– Describe the audio equipment used in the tests and indicate their cost.

The test runs for 2 months. Participants are encouraged to take their time.

Participants

Most of the test participants:

– They are men.
– Between 41 and 50 years old.
– They are not musicians (although 22% say they are).
– They have no experience in music production (although 24% do claim to have it).
– They use equipment whose cost is between $ 1,000 and $ 3,000.

The results

– The hit rate is practically 50%. Or what is the same, pure fluke.
– Participants who claimed to be more sure of their answers were not more correct than the rest.
– The group of “musicians” has failed more than the average.
– The group of “audio engineers” has made it a tad better than the average, but without exceeding 55% of hits in any fragment.
– The group of audio equipment analysts has also done worse than the average, but the size of the sub-sample is considered low (8 participants).
– Participants with expensive equipment (44 people with equipment over $ 6,000) did no better than average.
– The use of headphones has not been an advantage.

The conclusions

I translate more or less literally:

In a real study carried out over 2 months in which 140 people have participated and in which high-quality sound samples obtained from digital audio at 96/24 have been used, no evidence has been found that Digital audio with a 24-bit depth could be appreciably differentiated from its corresponding 16-bit versions obtained through Adobe Audition 3 using a basic algorithm (1/2 bit flat triangular dither).

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Differences between 16 and 24 bit audio, understand it clearly

When we got into digital audio, everything was easier. The products recorded and generated in digital audio were all in 16 bit. The Compact Discs, the main method of music distribution has a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1 kHz

Gradually, the products began to appear with greater Bit Depth until the recordings reached 24 bit today. But what does all this mean and how important is it. To start, let’s define the terms.

–Bit Depth (bit depth) refers to the number of bits the audio has to capture. The easiest way to visualize this is as a series of levels, which can be sliced audio energy at a given time. With 16-bit audio, there are 65,536 possible levels. With all the higher resolution bits, the number of levels is doubled. By the time we reach 24 bits, we actually have 16777216 levels. Remember that we are talking about a frozen audio segment in an instant of time.

Now, let’s add our friend time to our explanation … and that is when we find the Sample Rate.

–Sample Rate is the number of times your sound is measured per second (samples). So in the Red Book standard for CDs the sampling frequency is 44.1 kHz or 44,100 samples every second. So what is the sampling rate 96 kHz? You guessed it. It is 96,000 audio samples shown every second.

Therefore, to make things clear:

-24/96 recording means higher audio resolution-more than 250 times higher than in 16 / 44.1
-The recording in 24/96 occupies approximately 3.25 times the recording space in 16 / 44.1

Now we are going to get to the subjective part of how music plays at these different bit depths and sampling frequencies. No one can quantify how much better a song recorded on 24/96 will sound. The fact that a 24/96 file has 250 times the audio resolution does not mean it will sound 250 times better, but it will not even sound twice as high. Actually, unless you have a very trained ear and a very good audio system you won’t even notice the difference. Can you hear the difference between a CD / MP3 file and a wave or vinyl file? If so, then you are likely to notice the difference between 24 bits and 16 bits of audio. Now, let’s try to be more objective with everything.

Let’s talk about the Sample Rate and the Nyquist theory. This theory says that the current upper threshold of a piece of digital audio will reach its maximum in the middle of the Sample Rate. So if you are recording at 44.1, the highest frequencies are generated around 22 kHz, this is 2kHz higher than typical human capacity with an excellent ear. Experts and music lovers have claimed since the beginning of digital audio that vinyl records are a better sound system than digital audio. In fact, you can find evidence that analog recording and playback equipment can be measured up to 50 kHz, more than double our listening threshold. Here is the great mystery. The theory is that audio energy, although I don’t hear it, exists as it has an effect on the lowest frequencies we can feel. Returning to Nyquist’s theory, a 96 kHz sampling rate will result in the potential audio output at 48 kHz, not far from analog sound reproduction. This leads us to assume that the same principle is applicable. The audio has been improved in a threshold that we cannot perceive but that makes us hear it “better”, however confusing this may seem.

Having understood all this, we already have the basis for our next article in the 24-bit audio player equipment blog and the need for storage, where our QNAP Turbo NAS come in. We will see as brands like Linn, known worldwide in the world of music for the most enthusiastic, recommends the QNAP brand as a store for all our music libraries.