Can YOU Hear the Difference The Ultimate A B Listening Test

Today marks the beginning of something that have wanted to do for very long time. And have feeling that by the time we wrap up this series, it might challenge some longheld assumptions in the hi-fi world. And while it might not change everyone's mind, it just might change the way you think about audible differences in hi-fi system. Welcome back to New Record Day. My name is Ron. If you consider yourself an audio file or music enthusiast, welcome home. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and ring the bell notification so you know when the next video drops. So today is phase one and by the end of this video, you're going to have five and sound clips that you can download, listen to at home, and cast your vote whether or not you can hear difference between the clips in community poll. Now, before we get into the downloads, want to make something clear. These sound clips are not my typical NRD sound clips. So, usually capture the raw sound of loudspeaker with matched pair of microphones. It is clean, it is direct, and it is straightforward. But for this project, wanted to go bigger. Much bigger. That's right. Instead of just hearing the tone of speaker, took on the task of bringing you closer to the actual sound of the room. And while it's not quite perfect, this is by far the closest I've ever gotten to you actually sitting in the sound shed with me. This was labor of love. lot more work than my usual clips. But man, it was totally worth it because what you're about to hear isn't just the sound of speaker. It's the entire sound shed in all its glory. And for the sake of this experiment, every single microphone stayed locked in the same place for all five songs. Same speakers, same amps, same mic positions, same recording levels, same gain staging, same volume position on the system. Nothing was adjusted or corrected afterward. The only thing that changes between and is one single variable, and kept it consistent from start to finish. So, in the description of this video, you'll find Google Drive link with all five and excerpts. Each one is about 40 seconds long, which should be enough to hear the differences without me sharing the full track. Now, these are lossless wave files straight from the Zoom F8N. No compression, no sweetening, no YouTube mangling. What you hear is exactly what the mics captured in the sound shed. And because these are commercial songs, I've also included links in the description where you can buy or stream the music legally. So folks, please support these musicians. They are fantastic. Here are the rules of engagement. To keep this fun and honest, here's how want you to approach this. Number one, download the clips. Do not stream them from Google Drive. Number two, listen however you want. Headphones, speakers, or heck, even in your car. But if you want my recommendation, quality pair of headphones is going to be the way to go. Number three, head to the community tab and simply vote whether or not you heard any difference from clip to clip That's it. Super simple. And folks, is always and is always across all five tracks. So there's no flipping. There's no tricks. And by the way, some of you might hear big differences. Some might hear subtle differences and some might not hear any difference at all. All of that is completely okay. Just trust your ears and go with your gut. And next week in phase two, we're going to lift the curtain. I'll reveal exactly what changed between and and we'll look at objective differences that actually survive real room recording. Things like dynamics, transients, overall energy, tonal balance, the stuff that truly makes it through the microphones. already have my impressions, but I'm keeping those to myself until the votes come in. So, download the clips, give them listen, cast your votes, and in one week, we will reveal the difference maker. Thanks for watching. I'll see you guys for the big reveal in phase two.