I find that the double speed listening exercises for lesson 15, 20,25 in Level1 (new) are “woolly” and not clear, compared to the 5 and 10 lessons. Does antone else find that?
Bore da i chi! 
At first yes, the “woolly” or distorted feeling was similar to my first experience, the same was true of Japanese when I had started learning many many years ago.
It can be disheartening, but given time and practice you’ll soon start to recognise words. Over time that’ll increase as your brain picks up on all the sounds; it doesn’t happen overnight but I promise it will 
The more you listen, the more you’ll start to notice; I’m not sure if @aran has any strong opinions on listening to S4C or Radio Cymru, even music, but they also significantly helped me as it gave me lots of different situations on top of the listening exercises, for me to hear words instead of noise!
Eventually you’ll reach a point where it sounds very natural (if a bit fast) and you can recognise the words as they’re being said. Try not to worry too much about it for now, dal ati / keep going! 
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I had been listening to the 1.15 Listening Practice for a bit, when I suddenly realised exactly that! For the first tiny while, it was a gabble, then it was OK, just more like a Bus Conductor in Abertawe! (When we had them!)
[I had to translate - from English into slower English - for some US tourists!]
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I’m surprised that you hear a difference between 10 and 15 - they should be the same - @lewie might be interested in asking you some questions about that
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I think the quality of the recording is what was meant. Although it was a while a go I last did one, I had the same experience, 5 was crisp, but the 2 after seemed muffled. Nothing to do with the words, an audible difference in sound quality.
That was a while ago however so may have changed, almost 7 months, also my memory of the recording may be poor, will give it a go when I get home.
Also on the s4c/radio note, a recordings were more muffled, than the confusion radio is in the beginning, again this was a while ago, so maybe they’ll sound crisp clean when I get home!
Edit. After downloading, although fast, I found the recordings quite clear. I guess like as @henddraig said, it starts to clear, how odd. Just like you, I found it muffled and un clear the time before. It’s nice going back to previous material and seeing how far you have progressed. I attribute this to daily radio listening. It doesn’t seem like it’s going in, but the work pays off
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It’s bizarre how different it sounds compared to the very first time you listen, I was convinced for weeks the recording was wrong or broken. Many, many months later it all sounded crystal clear.
The real magic moments for me currently, are not only hearing/seeing the words, but understanding them without actually thinking. Something which I have to admit @aran, I was very very skeptical would happen! 
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I just pulled up listening exercises for 10 and 15, and yes, the sound quality on 10 is much better than 15. “Woolly” is a nice adjective to describe it! 10 is actually an updated file, so I think I must have been aware of this at one point, and fixed 10, but I don’t know why I didn’t follow through and do 15, 20 and 25! Thanks for flagging this up.
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Have you already put in updated files? As I just downloaded 15, and the quality is much better than my previous version
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Scepticism is healthy and rational…
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I have to agree that there’s something fishy going on here. During bwtcamp we were forced (yes, forced) to listen to the double speed listening practices every day for 30 mins and after a couple of listens I think Aran swapped the files to better quality ones on Rob’s tablet because they got a whole lot clearer.
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I kept expecting you to realise that the gun wasn’t actually loaded…
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I could smell the cordite.
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No - but don’t be surprised if they tend to sound clearer with repeated listening regardless!
De-“wooling” the 15, 20 and 25 exercises will hopefully make the ear’s learning curve less steep!
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Hi, what actually meant is I have two copies of the same file, but the newer one is clearer (I have listened aside by side) so not just my ears improving. One was downloaded months ago, the other one was downloaded the other day, southern course btw.
Have they been updated since then, out could this be a possible occasional downloaded issue?
I think download is the likely issue here - I certainly haven’t uploaded any newer files for the listening exercises, although I will be doing once the fresh set are ready (probably after I get back from the Monte Carlo bootcamp now).
I have just realised I must have compared the new southern 15 (clear) with level 15 north excercise (wooly)
I remember at the time the southern listening one wasn’t made, instead the northern one was recommended to use instead. That was quite a a while ago, and had forgotten, sorry about the confusion, I never got round to properly checking the difference, at the speed I didn’t notice the small differences between northern and southern structures.
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Ah, that sounds like it! Good, that clears up the mystery
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