Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: ibeecoo on 27/10/2008 03:09:22

Title: What is our hearing resolutions?
Post by: ibeecoo on 27/10/2008 03:09:22

I have a friend that claims to be able to tell the difference between music encoded at a high resolution like 320 kbps and something lower like 192 kbps.  He says 320 sounds better.

I personally cannot hear the difference between 320 kbps and 192 kbps.  Can the human ear hear the difference between 320 kbps music and something lower like 192 kbps?  Are my friends just biased and falsely think the music sounds better?  What is a humans maximum hearing resolution?

Title: What is our hearing resolutions?
Post by: RD on 27/10/2008 18:34:43

The limit of human hearing is approximately 20KHz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoacoustics#Limits_of_perception), (this is age dependent: persons become deaf to high frequencies with age).

The highest audio frequency which can be recorded digitally is half the sampling frequency, (i.e. the Nyquist frequency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency)).

Assuming a 16 bit depth, 192Kbs can record a frequency of 12KHz, 320Kbs can record 20KHz.

So yes, it could be possible to tell the difference between 192Kbs and 320Kbs recordings,

although this would depend on the listeners age and the performance of their speakers or headphones. 

Title: What is our hearing resolutions?
Post by: ibeecoo on 27/10/2008 22:23:53

Thanks RD for your quick response!