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Fun music test for those with aids ... and WITHOUT

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OK! I just finished a fun music test with hubs - one of MANY we do all the time here - just as we do taste tests to compare different coffees, teas, wines, olive oils and even salts.

My hubs has been having an ongoing discussion with some nerds on the merits of vinyl vs SACD in music recordings. After almost a week of back ‘n forth, we put it to the test at home. Picked The Eagles’ “Hotel California” - identical original recording, one done on vinyl, the other in SACD format. Music was played in a large room with lots of reflectivity (ugh) on Vivid speakers.

We each did a “blind” test where I’d flip a coin, and depending on HEADS or TAILS, I’d play either the vinyl version or the SACD. We did five coin tosses for 5 answers. First, hubs made his guesses. He wears NO aids, has I’d say normal to good hearing, listened to each version for maybe 15-20 seconds or more, and got 100% accurate score.

I had put my Phonak Lumity Life 312s into their “Music” program. Even with my back turned to him to flip the coin, I could tell IMMEDIATELY which one was vinyl and which was SACD. We switched places with hubs tossing the coin, and even he was surprised that within 2-3 seconds of the song I nailed it: 100% accurate on all coin-flips.

I can’t wait to tell my audiologist when I see her tomorrow to pick up my backup pair of these 312s. Despite my CINDERBLOCK ears, with the dedicated “Music” program, I’m able to pick up my own nuances to nail an answer. That made me GLEEFUL! :smiley:

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Always fun to read your upbeat fun posts.
But this test seemed more like an identify test rather than a preference test. Which is fine, but all the setup you wrote seemed to point towards preference with the other things. Like are you saying you are preferring one coffee over another or are you identifying variations of beans or source?

LOL, I should clarify: my post here is to BRAG about my Phonak 312s and how the “Music” program helps me NAIL nuances in music - perhaps even faster than folks with normal hearing? And for the record, both hubs & I definitely preferred the SACD version of “Hotel California” over vinyl.

As for our other comparison tests: yes, the point is always to note which coffee bean, wine, olive oil or whatever we prefer. Sometimes we line up 3 or more samples, sometimes it’s just a throwdown, Bobby Flay style. It is not to identify the variety of bean, grape or source, but rather just the taste. Now that’s EASY, eh? :face_savoring_food:

Yes I also much prefer cd and digital (uncompressed) over vinyl. Vinyl always seemed so dull and lifeless to me. Perhaps I damaged my ears as a teen listening to vinyl rock music with headphones and cranking up the treble and yeah yeah the volume and here I am. :slight_smile: When cd’s came out it was night and day so much crisper and brighter over vinyl and not cranking the treble.
But maybe my hearing has never been 100%. It was only about 10 years ago that I finally succumbed to getting ’s.

I often wonder about differences in those commodities. Can one prefer a cheap product over a presumably fancy expensive product. Blind tasting of course.

Yeah, that’s kind of the giveaway. No needle drop, no snap crackle and pop. I prefer the music on the LP versus the remoastered CD most of the time, but I do not miss the noise.

I did a lot of reading and investigating in more recent times the introduction of cd’s from way back in the mid-80’s and what I found was that those first couple few years of cd copies were generally from original mixes and masters. Then yes after that lots of remastering went on as time went on. And I agree that the remasters can tend to mess up what we might all remember. Although not great hearing doesn’t help either :slight_smile:

The re-releases of Vinyl aren’t always that good (even if they are derived from original studio tapes), especially as the needle gets nearer the spindle. Sloop John B on my copy of Pet Sounds just sounds strained. CDs are ok, but if you really want to hear dynamic range preservation, have a try of one of the HD streaming services.

@Um_bongo said:

Sloop John B on my copy of Pet Sounds

One of my fave albums alright. I’m sure Brian Wilson would agree that Qobuz would do the needful for Sloop John B and steer that dynamic range on its safe passage from Heaven to our ears! :ear_with_hearing_aid:t2:

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