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mp3 - it's more common, smaller, and of comparable quality

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Q: What is the better audio format mp3 or aac?
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What is the best audio format?

Today there are a variety of different digital audio formats to choose from. Enough to cause confusion amongst new users who wish to convert their CD library into digital form for easy listening on their computers or portable audio device such as the iPod. This guide is designed to help newer users on deciding on a format to rip his or her music to. The first thing you should consider is what you need from an audio format. Compatibility? Quality? Playable on your portable device? There is no right or wrong answer on which format you should use. It's a personal choice and it depends on your needs. There are two types of audio formats: lossy and lossless. Lossy formats throw out audio information when encoding to lower the file size of the song so no lossy format is technically CD quality. However, perceivable quality is more important and lossy formats can provide audio that is indistinguishable from the original CD. Lossless formats work like Zip files. It compresses your audio as much as it can without throwing out any audio information. When the losslessly compressed file is decompressed it will have the same quality it had before it was compressed. In other words, lossless formats retain the CD quality audio on your CDs. There is no quality loss. The bit rate of a file is the data rate that the audio is compressed at. There is no clear answer to which is best, it all depends on your hearing. Do some comparison tests between the CD quality audio and encoded files at various bit rates and determine which sounds best to you. Bit rates are used in the following ways: * CBR (constant bit rate) - The file is encoded using the same bit rate throughout the entire file. * VBR (variable bit rate) - The bit rate changes throughout the file according to the complexity of the music to offer the best quality. * ABR (average bit rate) - This is a simple VBR mode where the bit rate fluctuates through out the song and averages out to be a certain bit rate. Note: This guide was created with the iPod user in mind as it is the most popular portable audio device on the market. That is the reason for the many iTunes references and iPod references in the guide. Now let's start reviewing the various audio formats.MP3 is by far the most popular audio format in use today. It was the first lossy compression codec which means it is also the oldest lossy compression format. MP3 can achieve transparent, or indistinguishable from CD, quality at around 192kbps-256kbps to most people on most samples. The LAME encoder is highly recommended when encoding MP3s by the folks at Hydrogenaudio.org. It is the highest quality MP3 encoder available. If you are concerned about compatibility with software and portable audio players then this is the format to use.AAC or Advanced Audio Coding, is a relatively new format. AAC has been made popular by Apple because of its integration into Apple's iTunes music software and its iPod portable audio player. At any bit rate, AAC should sound better than MP3. Likewise, a 128 kbps AAC file should sound better than a 128 kbps MP3 file. AAC is gaining popularity and so it is becoming compatible with more media players but currently the iPod is the only major portable audio device that can playback MPEG-4 AAC. Note that AAC is not owned by Apple. It is defined in the MPEG-4 standard which means any portable audio device has the capability to add support for the format. The iTunes Music Store uses AAC at 128kbps. However, the iTunes Music Store wraps the FairPlay DRM protection around the MPEG-4 AAC files it sells. FairPlay is proprietary to Apple and currently Apple does not license it to other companies so the iPod remains the only player to be able to play files bought from the iTunes Music Store. Any music ripped to AAC in iTunes does not have any DRM protection attached to it.Ogg Vorbis is an open-source and patent free audio format. MP3 and AAC are patented formats that must be licensed in order to be used. The advantage to Ogg Vorbis is that it is free to use without any restrictions. Ogg Vorbis should sound better than MP3 at the same bit rate. Ogg Vorbis has a few portable audio players that play it and media player software is beginning to support it more. A lot of game developers are using the format to avoid paying licensing fees. Ogg Vorbis is not supported by the iPod.MPC is considered the best lossy audio format today. It excels at bitrates above 160 kbps and can achieve transparency in the 160 - 200 kbps range to most people on most samples. However, MusePack doesn't have much support. No portable audio device yet plays this format and only a handful of media players support playback of MusePack natively. Most media players require a plug-in to support MusePack. iTunes does not support this format and neither does the iPod.WMA is Microsoft's answer to MP3. Exclusive to the Windows platform, WMA offers better sounding files at lower bit rates but currently WMA is not the best audio format. Better tuned MP3 encoders, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, and MusePack all beat WMA's quality at 128kbps and above. This format is not supported by the iPod but iTunes does offer a feature to convert WMA files to AAC/MP3 files for playback on the iPod.FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec which is exactly what it is. It is non-patented and open-source. It supports multiple computing platforms and is considered the best lossless codec available by many. Encoding and decoding are both fast, compression is good, and seeking throughout a file is also fast. Currently, iTunes and iPod do not support FLAC.APE is another lossless compression format. It generally compresses better than FLAC using the highest setting, however, having the best compression isn't the best thing when talking about a lossless codec. Monkey's Audio is a Windows-only format and encoding, decoding, and seeking is slower than FLAC. WAV is the main format used for raw and typically uncompressed audio. The usual bitstream encoding is the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) format.Uncompressed WAV files are quite large in size, so, as file sharing over the Internet has become popular, the WAV format has declined in popularity. However, it is still a commonly used, relatively "pure", i.e. lossless, file type, suitable for retaining "first generation" archived files of high quality, or use on a system where high fidelity sound is required and disk space is not restricted.


Are aftermarket audio systems always better in terms of power and clarity and sound versus factory audio systems?

the more you spend the better they are however i have an expensive sound system in one vehicle and the factory system in another and i prefer the sound of the factory system it is balanced for the vehicle the other one is better in terms of preferences because i can play mp3 CD or satellite radio


How to run the audio file copied from a CD on a computer using windows operating system?

It depends on what you mean by "run the audio file copied from a CD." If you mean you copied a track straight off a CD onto your computer's hard drive then you have two choices: create a virtual CD-ROM drive to play the track; or, two, convert the audio file to a format the media player you have on your PC can play (mp3, wma, etc.). In either case you'll need special software to create the virtual drive or to convert the audio file for playing. If neither option is for you then you should still be able to play your audio CD from your CD-ROM drive using the default audio software that came with Windows.


How do you setup spi digital audio player?

If you keep gettings "File system Error" and you don't know how to fix it well its easy all you have to do is go to "setup" and then scrow down to "Sys Tools" and then "Reset it" and there you go but first format it...if u have songs on it then drag them to your desktop and save them until you format it and then put all your songs back and then reset it and it should work....Oh and ur gonna have to reset it everytime you turn it on...i know its annoying but its worth listing to your music right? hahahah anyways i still haves mines for a very long time now...at least it lasted longer then my Ipod Nano witch lasted mi more then 2 months then it just started to fail on me.... Spi Mp3 might be cheap but they work and they lasts...


When and Where was Ahn Do born?

your site is amazing dude. the content you have helps me alot thnks................. <a href="http://www.playmp3song.com">mp3 song</a>

Related questions

You have audio CD player so which format you us aac or wav?

CD players will read WAV or MP3. MP3 has better audio, but smaller. WAV is a larger file, and has the same audio level.


What does aac do on an iPod?

It takes up less space then MP3 and it supposedly is better quality then MP3. When you buy something from the iTunes store, they're music is in AAC format.


What kind of music format are iTunes songs?

iTunes can format songs into a variety of different formats. By default the songs are encoded in AAC, short for Advanced Audio Coding. It is much like MP3, but sound quality is better. On the other hand not many Digital Audio Players accept AAC; however many are beginning too.


Does a CD hold more songs in MP3 or AAC?

MP3. There's more compression in MP3's than there are in AAC (which is lossless, meaning no loss of quality). AAC (Adpative Audio Coding ), support by Nokia, Apple, Sony mobile or audio player. AAC is higher quality than mp3, and the files bigger.


What format of Music does the iphone play?

mp3, aac


Is there such thing as a mp4 player?

Most modern audio players, such as the iPod, will play MP4 files. The audio part of an MP4 uses the Advanced Audio Coding known as AAC which is the format used for audio files purchased from the iTunes store. The AAC/MP4 files give a better sound quality in a smaller file size than the equivalent MP3 file.


What are AAC files?

AAC files are audio files much like MP3 files. Like MP3, AAC files use audio compression to achieve a smaller file size. AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding, and it is somewhat more effecient and higher quality than MP3 (depending on the bitrate). When you download a songs from iTunes, you're getting an AAC files. For more information, look up Advanced Audio Coding on Wikipedia.


Is Christian music aac music?

aac is a type of file format, just like mp3 is.


Can you download songs from CDs onto an iPod?

Copy CD music to localhost and convert audio to iPod compatible format(mp3, aac, m4a).


How is it possible to convert AAC to MP3?

To downgrade an AAC (MP4) to an MP3 file open iTunes Preferences and select the Import Settings in the General section. Change the Import Using: option to MP3 and set the Settings to the desired quality. In the iTunes library right click on the AAC file and select Create MP3 version from the menu.


What can one find on the Rocket MP3 website?

On the rocket MP3 website you can find lots of handy tools for converting MP3 format audio files to different formats. Some of these formats include AAC, WAV, and more.


Are mp3's better than Zunes?

A Zune is not an audio format like an mp3, it is a music/video player designed by Microsoft. It plays mp3 audio files as well as Microsoft's mp3 alternative, wma audio files.