Philips Golden Ears Test

AsSiMiLaTeD

OK audiophiles, time to put your skills to the test!

Anyone done this yet? Its an audiophile training of sorts, where it teaches you and then tests you on various things like levels of bass, bass extension, boominess of bass, levels of midrange, levels of treble, treble extension, soundstage width, reverberation, distortion, noise, mp3 compression, loudness, etc.

It starts at a beginner level and gets gradually more advanced, four levels in all ending with the 'Golden Ears' level and final test. I found it fun, and ultimately rewarding that I was able to get through it without much trouble. I I like the way the tests work, such that when you get an answer incorrect it actually sends you back to the previous question, so there's no way to really cheat your way through this by just guessing the right answers, makes it more rewarding when you reach the end.

I flew through the first 3 levels in about half an hour I think, though I do wish there were a timer on the whole process. Apparently some people find the mp3 compression tests tough but I found those relatively easy as well, I guess what I've been telling people is true and my ears are sensitive to compression.

Once you hit the Gold level though there's a section where you have to identify one of 18 boosts or cuts at 9 frequencies, and I found this section to be a little challenging and spent probably half an hour on that one test. It's BY FAR the most difficult part of the whole exercise, and yet strangely is not at the end. Once you get to the final quiz you'll find it really easy, I flew right through that.

In general, I was able to hear things like distortion, mp3 compression, loudness, soundstage, and any changes in bass very easily. My weaknesses were in hearing some of the more subtle changes in treble levels and extension, so while my ears are sensitive enough to obviously get through the tests they're still not perfect by any means.

I completed the tests mostly using my Focal XS Book desktop speakers and when things got harder later on I plugged in the B&W P7 headphones to get the better resolution that I needed for the treble related tests.

Here's the website, post up your 'Golden Ear' award when you're done:
https://www.goldenears.philips.com/en/introduction.html

Here's my final result!

AsSiMiLaTeD

My wife got through the basic stuff easily, started to get bogged down in the bronze and then got bored with it...

AsSiMiLaTeD

This also makes great supporting evidence for the argument for acquiring better gear. I told my wife this morning, while pointing to my ears, "Hey these things are GOLDEN, they need only the best gear, sounds like it's time for some upgrades! I can't help that the Magnepan 3.7 are taller and wider than the 1.6 I have now, these ears NEED better sound"

Erik Tracy

What gear is needed to take the test?

My laptop is not connected to my sound system.

AsSiMiLaTeD

It all depends on your hearing, like I said I did the test mostly using some desktop speakers directly out of the headphone jack on my iMac, for the crazy EQ test from hell I had to use the B&W P7 headphones but still plugged into that same port. All my desktop gear is in flux at the moment so I don't have a DAC currently here on the computer rig. These Focal desktop speakers are good, but they're not high end, think I pad $299 retail for the pair.

I'm sure these tests would be easier with a pair of Senn HD800 on a killer DAC and headphone amp, but you don't NEED them for the tests. I actually have some HD800 laying around but nothing to plug them into at the moment so I can't test that theory out. I may test it out on the Maggies at some point, but wanted to see how I'd do on the worst rig I had around the house so that's what I used.

B Run

Just got through most of it on my Macbook Air speakers haha, finally had to get up and get my Klipsch headphones after getting a few answers wrong. This would definitely be easier with a nice desktop system.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm surprised there's not more interest / discussion on this, figured this was right up our alley...

Dennis Gardner

I found the same tracks over and over boring. I stuck it out well into the silver ears section until I realized that I had better things to do on a 70 degree Saturday after all the shut-in days over the past two weeks.

Inspector 24

This looks fascinating. I was thinking the other day about test material that would directly demonstrate things like compression. I'll definitely be checking this out, one quiet night without background noise.

Inspector 24

F*** that test, got to the frequency boost/cut section, got frustrated going back and forth, was making slow progress and getting super sick of listening to the same song over and over and over…. Then when I decided I wanted to finish it I hit something wrong, couldn't get back to the 'Golden' level without going through it all again, so F*** that test.

The two things I had most trouble with were the subtleties in compression and reverb. Guess I either need better ears and/or better than the apple earbuds to do the test. :cool:

If you're going to do it, my advice don't do it all at once. I got super super sick of that song as it's the most used one and quit focusing on it. But a good time waster for a rainy day.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I didn't think it was THAT bad, and I see it being alot more valuable than a just time waster for a rainy day. I actually think there are a couple ideas with the program.

One is to train people who are otherwise not familiar on how to listen to music somewhat critically. Even on the basic level you're learning about several critical areas of music (spectral balance, coloration, distortion, noise, soundstage, bass). You get thru the Basic and Bronze levels and you've just taken probably 90% of the people who listen to music and increased their knowledge 10x. My contention is that for every 10 people who genuinely complete those sections you'd get half of them out of Beats or Bose and into better gear. THAT's the main purpose I think, to educate people about good sound and maybe even make a few of them CARE. I think this is a pretty good way to go about training people, because most people in general like games and challenges and this is laid out as such.

The other objective I think is to allow audiophiles to test their ears. I don't think its about bragging rights (although it has already devolved into that here at work and I've made $200 so far LOL), so much as just being a good baseline reference for pointing out the strengths and weaknesses in our hearing. Other than the one EQ section everyone is talking about this test is actually fairly easy, but even as such I was still able to pinpoint an area or two where I'm not as strong such as small changes in the high frequency ranges.

Based on what I can hear maybe I change some things. If I have problems hearing certain frequency ranges then maybe certain speakers and gear work better for me, or if you can't hear the difference between a 320 file and a lossless flac file then do you want to maintain a larger lossless library? That's not to say that someone who can't get thru the Golden level should go sell all their good gear, not saying that at all. I just think it's good to know where you stand.

In terms of things I'd like to see changed, I do think that the one EQ section is unnecessarily complicated and not really all the useful so I'd like to see that changed up. I'd also like to see the tests get more progressively difficult in the Gold section and think that final test should be much tougher. I'd like to see the MP3 section fleshed out a bit more and repeated later on with higher bit rates. I too would also like to see a larger selection of music, at least later on where the tests take longer. Finally, I"d like to see some sort of message after the bronze section that says something to the effect of "If you've made it this far you should quit buying crap like Bose and Beats and invest in some better gear. You can proceed to the higher levels if you want, but at this point you've got the knowledge and ears necessary to appreciate better gear".

It obviously took a good deal of effort to build this tool and while its not perfect it's nice to see a company (Philips of all people) try and change the way people think about music in this culture of people buying more and more compressed music. Honestly I would have expected this from a company like B&W or Polk instead of a company that makes electric razors, but as evidenced by the Philips X1 headphones that I reviewed here apparently Philips still has a few people there who care about sound as well.

Again, I'm a little surprised there's not much interest in this. It's not like I work for Philips or have a vested interest in you people liking this test or anything, its just that, as much as we all **** here about thing like crappy compressed music and the loudness wars, I figured something like this would interest an audio community more. Even though its not perfect, its the best thing out there I'm aware of.

Dennis Gardner

I think what is more telling is that Phillips sponsors a test like this to identify qualities of high end music reproduction, but even they know that the public could care less and very little of their own branded products that have ever been released possess the ability to reproduce at the golden ear level of quality.

I do give them credit for their R & D over the years that is found within many of the directions music reproduction has taken, but their own products are still based in mediocrity. The real $$$ is in items made for the masses and they are dumbed down because it doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things in life.......

AsSiMiLaTeD

I don't really understand your response I guess, what does that 'tell' you? Are you saying that they should not have developed a program like this because nobody cares? I think that's the point, to teach and encourage people to care.

In terms of their products being mediocre, I assume that you've listened to all their gear before making such a blanket generalization? I've never really thought of Philips when high end audio comes to mind, but they have some products, especially in the headphone arena, that are quite good. I do agree though that the majority of what they sell, in terms of volume, is probably mediocre gear. They sell that gear because that's what people buy, the trick though is convincing people that its not good enough and I think that's what they're trying to do with this program. Is it going to reach millions and change the world? Probably not, but you gotta start somewhere. Compare that to Beats who are happy selling you crappy gear for hundreds of dollars...

I think they're trying to convince people to care, and then trying to produce better gear to give people more options for audio gear. Here's an article about the latter and their R&D process

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/visit-philips-research-labs

Of course audio doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things in life, the hope though is to get more people to care about it. You are aware that this is an audio forum you joined, right?

mantis

Thanks for posting this, it's pretty cool.
I for one have been a musician since the age of 9 and grew up with generations of Musicians and Audiophiles. I love nothing more then the best tone. Natural real sound.

Very cool for younger people who need to learn and some cool things for all of us, again thats for sharing.

Dan

SupraFT1

It is awesome test. I am glad that after many years of listening to loud music I still have the Golden Ears . I am using Senn HD800 headphone and plug it directly into Microsoft Surface Pro tablet and I passed the first three levels fairly easy but had a hard time to pass the frequency bands on music at golden ears level. I didn't have any problem to identifiy the boost in frequency but barely tell the difference of the cut at 8K and 16K. Last night I refused my wife request go to bed early and stayed up late to finish the whole test around 1:30AM. You have the idea how important the test to me compare to ...I hope my wife will not see this. It is fun test and I think your listening skill also improve after complete the test. Thanks for sharing.

F1nut

Again, I'm a little surprised there's not much interest in this.

All I have hooked up to my computer are some really small crappy speakers and I don't own headphones or ear buds, so I really have no way to take the test or I would.

zingo

I've started working through the test and my desktop planar speakers seem to be handling the task very well; thanks for the link!

maximillian

Did the basic test and then had to go do something else. Now it won't let me go on to the other tests until I re-do the basic. That's just dumb. It's a great test, but I don't have that much time to commit to it all at once. I wish they would remove the "locked" restrictions.

amulford

I am having trouble with the EQ section. I can identify the boosts or cuts, just not the frequency. Trying to choose is a little complicated. The rest of it was fairly easy to me. Some of the really subtle changes were a challenge, due to the fact I was using earbuds.

It's an eye opener and a good exercise, if you ask me.