Which of the Two Digital Audio Systems Best Matches the Quality of the Analog System?
In this listening test, two digital audio systems (X and Y), and one analog system (A) were tested by 10 test persons who listened to a surround sound scene “live” (without recording). The main question to be answered was: “Which of the two digital systems best matches the audio quality of the analog system?” Both digital versions had 24bit dynamic resolution but differed in sampling rate with which the analog signal was sampled. One version (Y) was sampled with a CD rate of 44.1 kHz, the other (X) 8 times faster. There were also two test conditions, where in one condition there was a bandwidth cut off at 20 kHz instead of the 100 kHz that was possible with special 100 kHz microphones and added super-tweeters. For each subject, the experiment was replicated six times in random order, in each of the two conditions. The outcome of each experiment was a 0 or 1, where the 1 means that the, technically best, digital system X has been chosen as meeting the analog quality. The paper describes
