# ABX: Blind Listening Test — Can you really hear lossless?

> Can you really hear lossless? (iPhone/iPad app by Neil Johnson.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abx-blind-listening-test/id6786673255 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Neil Johnson](https://appshunter.io/developer/1873807920)
- Category: Music, Utilities
- Price: Free (on sale, was $4.99)
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 30 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-07-22
- Data updated: 2026-10-04

## What is ABX?

Can you actually hear the difference between lossless and the streams you pay for? ABX finds out the fair way: blind, loudness-matched and scored with real statistics.

STREAMING CHECK
Pick a track and the services you want to test. ABX encodes the lossless original the way each service streams it (Spotify Premium, High and Normal, Apple Music, YouTube Music and SoundCloud), matches the loudness and hides which is which. You hear A, B and X, and decide whether X is A or B. At the end you get a plain answer: which streams you could hear, and which sounded lossless to you.

A FAIR TEST
• Loudness-matched, so volume can never give the answer away
• Seamless 20 ms crossfades, so a click can't either
• X is chosen at random for every guess, and services are shuffled together
• Every verdict is a one-sided binomial test, and ABX tells you honestly when a score is consistent with guessing
• Exclusive output on Mac takes sole control of your DAC and matches its sample rate

HEARING TEST
How high can you hear? An adaptive audiogram measures 13 tones from 250 Hz to 20 kHz in each ear. See every reading with a smoothed average, your highest tone in each ear and an indicative hearing age. Levels are relative to your headphones: it's for curiosity, not a medical test.

YOUR RESULTS, EXPLAINED
• A streaming map of what you can and can't hear
• A summary written for you on your device by Apple Intelligence (on supported devices)
• Free PDF reports and share cards with every setting and score

LISTENING NIGHTS
Run a session for your audio club, hi-fi store or friends. Name each listener, keep the same track and services for everyone, and get a group report showing who heard what.

FREE, WITH ABX PRO
Free: the hearing test, plus a full blind Streaming Check against SoundCloud's 64 kbps stream using the included public-domain recordings.

ABX Pro is a one-time purchase, with no subscription. It unlocks:
• Every streaming service in one blind session
• Your own music: WAV, AIFF, FLAC or Apple Lossless, including hi-res
• Advanced codec ladders: MP3, AAC, HE-AAC, Opus and Vorbis from 320 down to 32 kbps
• Group sessions and group reports
• 3 to 10 guesses per service, exact re-runs and exclusive output on Mac

One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac, and works with Family Sharing.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Encoding, playback, statistics and reports all run on your device. No accounts, no ads, no analytics.

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and SoundCloud are trademarks of their respective owners. ABX isn't affiliated with them; each preset uses the service's published codec and bitrate.


## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 2.0.2 — 2026-10-01

If you paid for ABX before it became free, Pro is now unlocked for you, as it should have been. Thank you for your support.

### 2.0.1 — 2026-09-29

Bug fixes.

### 2.0 — 2026-09-29

ABX 2.0 is a whole new app, with a new name.

• Free to start, with ABX Pro as a one-time unlock. If you bought ABX before, you keep everything.
• Streaming Check: blind-test your ears against Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and SoundCloud quality tiers
• Included public-domain recordings, so you can start straight away
• A new hearing test with every reading plotted and an indicative hearing age
• Your results explained in plain English, on your device
• Group sessions and group reports for audio clubs
• Free PDF reports and share cards
• A redesigned look, and a guide to the test methodology

### 1.0 — 2026-07-22

No release notes.

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## More apps by Neil Johnson

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All apps by Neil Johnson: https://appshunter.io/developer/1873807920

## Related topics

[abx audio test](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/abx-audio-test)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-04.*