Hi all,
Here's how I thought it went.
Background: We did tape to Pro Tools clocked to the 192 internal, SYNC I/O and Big Ben transfers at 48k and 96K and tape to Radar at 48k and 96k. For the blind tests, we only listened to the PT transfers with the 192 internal clock (though we will post examples of all clocks for you to listen to and decide which ones you like best - blind, of course).
There were 18 listeners in the room. Prior to the blind tests, Steve asked the room if anyone detected a loss of low end as that's what originally set out to check. Not a single hand went up. It didn't seem like anybody heard a discernable loss of low frequency information at all.
Then we did the blind tests in "A/B/X" fashion. We took 5 examples - tape, PT 48k, PT 96k, Radar 48k and Radar 96k - and paired them up as "A" and "B" in random pairs. Sometimes it was tape and PT96k and other times it was Radar 48k and PT 96k - you get the idea. 18 passes were performed altogther where the operator would play a 15 second section of "A", a 15 second section of "B" then randomly select one or the other and play that back as "X". The listeners then were to identify what they thought "X" was.
Of the 18 passes, the room had a 50% accuracy in correctly identifying the "X". The highest score in the room was 13 correct, the lowest was something like 4. There are differences in the sounds of these exaples to be sure, but they are subtle enough that they can only be picked out half of the time which means it's pretty clear that all 5 of these formats are very comparable in sound. Subtly different, yes, egregiously inaccurate, no.
That's my take on it. I'm sure others will chime in with their impressions. We still haven't sorted out how to deliver the files to y'all, but I'm suggesting posting 20 second excerpts (the same ones we listened to plus the clock alternatives) of the raw 24/96k files and create a poll of which ones you like best and why. You woulndn't be able to do blind comparison tests, but you can certainly tell which ones you like best. The files should be labeled "A", "B", "C", etc and put up for a week or so then revealed.
We'll figure that out and get them up asap. There was also a movie of the whole thing. I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures!
I'd like to thank Ron Steele and the kind folks at CRC for generously hosting this thing. Azoulas, Bruce, Chris, Chrisand the rest of the crew - you guys are awesome! Also, Steve and Fletcher for providing the tape, headstack, Radar and making the test as scientific as possible - and for keeping an open mind! I know I was there with and open mind and was very relieved to know that "we don't suck as much as Fletcher thought we did".
-GK