System A
- Turntable
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- Amp power
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- Speaker output
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- Room
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Building…
Three ways to listen. Every comparison is blind and plays both systems equally loud.
Built from published lab measurements of 22 speakers. Start with your volume low. Headphones recommended: you hear the whole simulated system, room included.
Your own music works best. Songs you know well make differences easier to hear. (optional; they stay in this browser)
Start with songs you know well. Differences are easier to hear when you know how a song should sound.
Your songs stay in this browser. WAV, FLAC, MP3 and AAC (.m4a) files work.
1 · Listen
The music itself, with no system or room.
The space bar switches between A and B.
Use a song you know well. Differences are easier to hear when you know how it should sound.
2 · Your guess
3 · The answer
Done with this question. Next: or .
Each system compared with the original recording, at your seat, over the last second of music. The dashed line is a neutral target: flat in the bass, free of the room's peaks and dips, and sloping gently down in the treble, as even a neutral speaker does at a seat. Where A and B part, they sound different.
Hear pairs of systems without knowing what they are, and pick the one you prefer. At the end you see your preferences, with gear and rooms that fit them.
Test in progress
Your music
Either way, you can switch songs in any round. ★ marks the recording we chose for hearing that round's difference.
How long?
Both sides always play equally loud. A few pairs repeat or are identical, to check how consistent you are.
Your results go anonymously into a tally of what people prefer: your profile and answers only, never your songs or their names.
On speakers you hear your own room, so the room and spread rounds are left out. Quick taste asks about presence instead, and the longer tests are shorter.
A new test replaces your saved one.
1 · Listen
The space bar switches between A and B.
2 · Your choice
Which do you prefer?
Next
Keep going with the Sound only test to turn these leanings into a profile. Your votes so far are kept.
Hear your match in Build your own: your system on A, a neutral reference on B.
Listen longer: about six minutes, without switching. Even six minutes is short; living with a system for days tells you more.
Which would you rather keep listening to?
Use a song you know well. Differences are easier to hear when you know how it should sound.
We can't play copyrighted music for you. Buy these in CD quality or better, then upload them or drag the files onto the page. They stay in your browser.
Mono may make speaker differences easier to hear.
Building…
Press the space bar to switch between A and BTap A or B to switch
Building…
Each system compared with the original recording, at your seat, over the last second of music. The dashed line is a neutral target: flat in the bass, free of the room's peaks and dips, and sloping gently down in the treble, as even a neutral speaker does at a seat. Where A and B part, they sound different.
Loading the comparison…
Each one loads both systems.
Each opens on A against a neutral reference on B: .