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Angled view of the AN1

Most of you are likely wondering about the core aspect of the AN1, which involve factors like signal noise and recording quality, but from my test recordings and blind A/B listening tests I found some interesting, but possibly inconclusive results.

I felt that recordings from the sound card and from the AN1 were both essentially “good” and “correct”, but I had the distinct feeling that the AN1 recordings had a more detailed quality, with better harmonics and a wider frequency spectrum. Electric guitars especially had a higher fidelity and better clarity, with a greater sense of depth in the sound stage. Vocals seemed more alive, and I am certain that the vocalists stood out more from the chorus in the AN1 recording compared to the sound card recordings.

When I asked some colleagues to also try some blind A/B testing, I got some mixed results that differed from my own experience.

AN 1 & MD Interface

Some felt that the sound card recording was crisper, and more “detailed”, and that the AN1 recording sounded “filtered” or muddled. One other colleague didn’t notice any difference between the recordings at all, and he was hard pressed to distinguish any sound quality differences. To me the sound card recordings were harsher, with a less refined high end, and more strident notes, but this experiment with several colleagues only proves the common belief that sound quality is highly subjective.

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