[LAU] What is the best MP3 encoder?

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Tue, Apr 02, 2013 at 08:08:21AM -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
 
> no, this is also not true. they want to *think* they are in the 10%, but
> they are not. its a common woo belief that you can "train" the ear to hear
> these differences and people who work in audio like to think they've done
> so. the current understanding of the ability to hear the differences,
> however, is not based on "training" but physiological abilities of the
> inner ear. double blind tests of discrimination including self-classified
> "golden ears" doesn't show them to substantively better than a random
> population sample.

Sure, you can't train your ears to go beyond whatever physiological limits
they have. And audio engineers don't have 'better ears'. But we don't listen
only with our ears.

Focussed listening, knowing what to listen for, not letting yourself be
carried away by the emotional effect of music, etc. are things that can
be trained. 

Ciao,

-- 
FA

A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia.
It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris
and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow)