I can't tell the difference between YouTube video and a FLAC file

[u/Conscious_shadow]

headphones : Audio Technica ATH-M20X

Chip : Creative Sound Blaster AE5

Audio source : flac file vs Apple Music Hi-Res vs YouTube video

Songs I played : countless

Basically I did an A/B/C test with all these. The only difference was just the audio volume (or gain or whatever, you get the point)

I can't notice anything, are my ears unworthy? Or is hi-res genuinely niche/super hard to notice?

[u/wiggan1989]

Good! Just enjoy the music.

[u/AwwYeahVTECKickedIn]

Tip: don't upgrade your DAC or headphones, and you will continue to enjoy the music without worrying about it!

I don't mean this to be a dig; but those are not terribly revealing headphones and that isn't a DAC known for sussing out details.

On the other hand, if you want to know what the fuss is about, then ignore me and invest in more revealing hardware! It's there. But it takes an entire chain of source -> equipment to experience it.

[u/bikeboygozip]

Good! Makes life easier

[u/Kvaestr]

The difference in file type is nowhere near as big as many audiophiles will have you believe.

What is making the a/b comparison even more difficult is that different platforms can have different masters of songs. Which will make you think you hear a difference because of the bitrate or file type.

The only song types that I can releably tell the difference between 320kbit mp3 and lossless are full orchestra. And then I'm not sure if I would be able to hear it on a more affordable set of headphones or speakers that are not setup perfectly.

Typically I will be able to tell YouTube from better sources on my equipment, but it doesn't sound bad at all. (Which is impressive considering their low bitrate)

I use a Fiio k5 pro and akg k701 for headphones. On them, I can hear differences much better than on my speaker setup. (Custom build speakers with SB acoustic drivers, Denon amplifier with Dirac ART, reasonable room treatment and 2 large custom subwoofers)

Anyway, enjoy music and experiment with actual significant changes. Especially in the price range of your headphones almost all differences will be bigger than the file format.

[u/aakoshak]

That’s interesting, because YouTube (video specifically) always sounds like it’s muffled or audibly compressed when listening to even Spotify

[u/X_Perfectionist]

Here is a test with songs at different bit-rate quality. The middle and highest quality are hard to distinguish.
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

Compression algorithms and codecs for audio and video do a very good job at hiding details while still preserving the important parts.

[u/rell7thirty]

Lucky you

[u/XSilentxOtakuX]

Nope. Your ears aren't unworthy. I just convert my FLAC files to ALAC for my phone and call it a day.

[u/Carmen6276]

There are a couple of things happening here. We listen with our brain, and as others have said, you may not be sensitive to the difference. Also the sound is going through the computers mixer and being resampled and reprocessed. This can scrub off a lot of the fine details. A bit perfect player may sound a lot different. Also using a sound card in your computer will inherently be more noisy than an outboard DAC. The inside of your computer is electrically very noisy. So there is that also. It’s not just one thing. I have heard some pretty good YouTube videos, always make sure you choose the highest video mode, that also increases the Audio bit rate. The difference can be dramatic. I use a bit perfect player and an outboard DAC and headphone amp. There is quite a bit of difference.

[u/jhalmos]

Easier to tell with speakers. Headphones are great for forensics but not for the nunaces that usually make up the kinds of differences that can be present.

[u/saidgheldane36]

Thats great, just leave it at that and enjoy your music, do not go down the rabbit hole

[u/TNF734]

Not everyone can. And not everyone who claims they do....does. Often times it's placebo.

In the right situation (DAP, IEMs or headphones, quiet room) I can definitely hear a difference between something like Tidal and YouTube Music, but that's only when I'm trying to. In a room with amp/speakers it is less apparent.

In all cases, what I find is whether I'm listening to Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon or YouTube Music thru IEMs, headphones or speakers... I enjoy music.

Consider yourself lucky. One less rabbit hole to crawl through.

[u/JigglymoobsMWO]

First your gear might not be good enough. I first started noticing differences with a pair of sennheiser hd650 plus smsl su-1 dac with topping headphone amp.  That sent me on a scramble for better files and different music because I can start hearing detail that wasn’t there before.

Second, the differences are subtle.  Usually YouTube music is too clean.  You might lose a little bit of background noise.  Different guitar plucks, piano notes, drum hits might all sound a bit too clean and ideal, like they are synthesized.  It’s like someone ran a subtle denoise filter over everything.

[u/SpecificHyena1933]

Enjoy what you have and take it. Ive been one an 18 month journey trying to figure this stuff out, between different DAPs, iems, frequency curves, etc etc. It all doesnt make a difference. You have to be in an entirely isolated room, completely dark, fully invested and fully attentive to very - very - specific parts and notes of songs to tell a difference. Its not you, its just that good audio has become so cheap and easy these days

[u/BigBig5]

It may depend on the flac file on how it was mixed and mastered. Also, the quality of the source file can make or break the final quality of a flac file. Here is an example, if song that is originally an mp3 and is convicted to flac, it doesn't add any missing data to the song because it wasn't there to begin with.

[u/Dense_Chemical5051]

And there is nothing wrong with it.😁

[u/therourke]

Ok. So?

[u/rankinrez]

High res is hard to notice compared to 320 MP3 or whatever.

Usually easy enough compared to shitty YouTube compression and often worse master though. At least for me.

[u/elhumanoid]

I believe it's a mix of little bit of both. Your ears might not pick up some subtleties and ultra high quality is just useless niche elitism-type of thing. Because there really isn't that much of a noticeable difference- that a human ears and brain can confidently pick up on anyway.

WAV sounds just about the same as FLAC. Hell, even 320kbp MP3 is up there.

[u/outsourcethrowaway33]

From my experience the difference comes out more with larger drivers. I'm sure there are great headphones out there that can bring out the difference but I haven't stumbled down that rabbit hole yet.

For example a YouTube video or mp3 may sound great in headphones but if you play that on a proper PA it's going to sound horrible. 

I would try the test on larger speakers and see if you feel the same way. 

[u/MoTeD_UrAss]

In my opinion, it may be that your ears haven't been trained to know what to look for. Therefore you're not going to be able to discern the difference. Possibly, a better A/B/C comparison would be Vinyl/CD/Streaming.