The blind test we run on ourselves

Tape, or software?

30 short trials. Each gives you three clips — A, B, and X — where X is an exact copy of either A or B. Most trials pit a real 2-inch tape machine against our emulation. Listen blind and say which one X matches.

Plan on 20–40 minutes with headphones or monitors. No account, no installer — one zip of WAV files plus the answer sheet on this page. Finish the sheet and you get your score, the odds a guesser does as well, and the trial-by-trial reveal.

Download the kit · 250 MB How it works

Four steps

How it works

01
Download the kit
One zip: 30 trials, three WAVs each (A, B, X), a built-in player page, and an offline answer sheet. Unzip it anywhere.
02
Listen blind
Open index.html from the zip — every trial has play buttons for A, B, and X. Prefer your DAW or player? The files are in media/. One question per trial: is X the same as A, or as B?
03
Mark A or B
Keep this page open and tap your answer in the sheet below as you listen — it saves in your browser. Worked offline in the CSV instead? Paste it in at the bottom of the sheet.
04
Submit, see the reveal
A complete sheet unlocks your score, how likely a coin-flipper is to match it, and which file was the real machine in every trial.

What is in the zip

vivre-abx-kit/
  index.html           built-in player, all 30 trials
  media/               90 level-matched WAVs, hashed names
  participant_abx.csv  offline answer sheet (optional)
  README.txt           protocol notes

Why the test is fair

Files are level-matched and the filenames are hashed — nothing in the metadata gives the answer away.
Catch trials are mixed in.
The answer key never ships with the kit. The server reveals it only after a complete sheet, so nobody can mine it one trial at a time.
Your first complete submission per email is the one that counts. Aggregate results get published once enough people have taken it — including our own failures.

Steps 3 & 4 — answer sheet