[vorbis] tool for listening tests

[Kenneth Arnold]

On Mon, Jan 07, 2002 at 05:47:00PM -0500, Monty wrote:
> In most cases, it won't.  Still, any occasional skew (and there will
> be some) will show up in the globally collected results.
> 
> DMA to the sound hardware causes noise too of course, but it will be
> roughly even for each sample.

I think this is going down to the level of even if you could hear the
difference (you have a good enough sound system and ears), the
extremely fine differences this will cause will almost definately be
masked by the actual audio. If you're that much of an audiophile, an
external DAC will greatly alleviate the problem (to the point of
definately beyond human hearing), and they are practical nowadays with
USB speakers (USB headphones? do such things exist?), USB DACs (see
list archives; they have been discussed before), and SPDIF speakers. I
happen to have (unfortunately not at my primary computer) some nice
Cambridge Soundworks digital-in two-channel+subwoofer speakers that I
picked up from newegg.com at the ridiculously low price of $60. As
they were obviously underpriced I doubt you can find such a deal, but
I think it shows my point that the internal computer noise can be
avoided through practical, inexpensive means these days.

IANAIA (... insane audiophile).


-- 
Kenneth Arnold <ken at arnoldnet.net>
- "Know thyself."


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: part
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 233 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/vorbis/attachments/20020107/351989af/part-0001.pgp