The Great Dither Shootout

Instructions:

1. Listen to all samples below by clicking on the questionmarks below. It's important to mention that listening should be performed at volumes when the dithering noise becomes barely audible. Normal listening conditions correspond to the case when dither noise is either inauible or barely audible. So testees should use the lowest possible volume, yet sufficient for hearing the differences between samples.

2. Make your judgement on the basis of effectivity (how well does it counteract the quantization distortion and how much of the low level audio is audible as the level drops) as well as the characteristics of the noiseshaping (how pleasant does it sound).

3. When you have made your decision, click on the button next to the numbered link of your favourite dithering algo. Please do also fill out the fields below, as it will make the compiled results of these tests much more amusing. If there is a particular field you do not wish to fill out, just leave it empty.

4. After you have filled out the form, press the <SUBMIT> button. On the next screen, you will see the mistery numbers matched to their algos. A result of the previous votes will also be presented (the results are updated about once per day).

(This is no market research survey, it is conducted purely for educational use and the raw data will not be made available to anyone. Please do not abuse this test. Thank you for participating.)
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For your reference: <original 24bit recording> <original 24 bit recording with 54dB of gain added> <original recording truncated to 16bit without dither>

Your name:
Your company:
Where are you located?
Your profession:

mastering engineer
studio engineer
musician
producer
general audio person
audio software/hardware developer
student
urban guerilla engineer
other - please specify:

Your age:
What (main) DAW do you use?
Sonic Solutions
Sadie
Audiocube
ProTools
Mac running
PC running
other - please specify:
Which speakers or headphones did you use to conduct this test?
Have you been nominated for a grammy lately?
Yes, how did you know?
When you ask your spouse to turn the TV down a touch, do you mean only 1 dB?
 Yes
No, my TV only features 2dB volume steps
I don't have a spouse. I have a cat though, does that count?
Haven't I read that question before somewhere?
Have you ever compared different dither types before?
 No, the dither type my system uses has always worked for me.
No, I never had the chance
Yes
Which dither type do you currently use?
Do you think you have picked the dither type that you already use?
Yes, definitely!
I think so, but I'm not entirely sure
I have absolutely no idea
Does Apple suck or what?
Yes
Yeah
You bet!
Any additional comments?

Thank you for filling out the form. Please click the <SUBMIT> button below to get to the results.



CAUTION: Have you picked an algo by clicking on one of the buttons next to the numbered questionmarks?

 

All files have been dithered to 16 bits from the same original 24 bit file. 54 dB of gain has been applied after dithering. The original files have been kindly supplied by Philipe Goutier of Steinberg. The samples using Megabitmax, Sound Forge, CoolEdit Pro and pow-r dither have been produced by Alexey Lukin. The Airwindows Mastering Tools samples have been produced by Chris Johnson. The samples using Wavelab, UV22 and Waves dither have been redone from the original versions by Philipe Goutier by Robin Schmidt in order to provide a consistent boost of gain over all samples. The files below are presented in alphabetical order. It should be pointed out that great care has been taken in the preparation of these samples and no dither product has been favoured above another. For questions or suggestions please contact dither@24-96.net.

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