MP3 vs AIFF vs AAC vs . . .

[Grant]

so going thru a whole lot of music i realised massive amounts of space is being occupied by high bitrate tracks (AIFF - 3072kbps):
behold the screenshot - 5 tracks occupying the better half a gig of space.


i'm compelled to wonder at what point our ears can really discern the audible difference between a track at 3072 kbps and one of half the bit rate ?
is it really simply academic when one gets to really high bitrate music.

i use either sure or skullkandy earphones, or the music is played thru a krell amp and martin logan speakers - despite fairly good quality audio equipment, more often than not i cannot really hear any difference between a 160MB AIFF track with huge bitrate & an AAC 256kbps 8MB size track.

Am i losing my hearing, or my mind ?

 

[kolaval]

Bru
1. the issue is not the 3072kbps, it's the songs, WTF?!
2. people rocking a krell amp and martin logan speakers cannot be seen with 320kpbs.

 

[Grant]

Bru
1. the issue is not the 3072kbps, it's the songs, WTF?!
2. people rocking a krell amp and martin logan speakers cannot be seen with 320kpbs.

well that settles it - losing my mind

 

[Grant]

an example - 2 tracks side by side, one AIFF & the other MP3 - screenshots taken at the same time stamp - i'm not really hearing much difference


AIFF





MP3

 

[kolaval]

I know you're asking serious questions but I cannot help myself.

I googled yeke yeke and it's the most 2000's thing I've seen in years.

 

[Grant]

I know you're asking serious questions but I cannot help myself.

I googled yeke yeke and it's the most 2000's thing I've seen in years.

indeed - it is in a "south african" playlist - although he is not south african.
that being said - i can offer you a choice of another 3000 or so tracks sitting idle on this lappie



or maybe 900 or so music videos


by god, there has to be something in there to please you !!

 

[agentrfr]

Properly encoded (split stereo, highest complexity, low pass 18Hz, high cut 20kHz), 320kbps mpeg1 layer 3 is transparent to lossless unless you're using really high end equipment in a tuned environment.

I've found even on an analytical setup, 640kbps opus at full encoding complexity is fully transparent to lossless

But you said skullcandy, so ima say 320k mp3 is fine for your use case

Ps. Aac is meh, the apple encoder is the best encoding tool but it's a pain to use cli. Opus is much nicer imo

 

[agentrfr]

To be honest just convert it all to flac and maintain the lossless to it. The processing overhead vs Aiff doesn't matter with any processor/dac made in the last 10 years

 

[SauRoNZA]

What are you listening on? That is what ultimately makes the difference.

Also, not everyone can hear everything.

***

Oh Skullcandy. In that case you don’t need much more than 256~VBR.

 

[Grant]

What are you listening on? That is what ultimately makes the difference.

Also, not everyone can hear everything.

***

Oh Skullcandy. In that case you don’t need much more than 256~VBR.

sure or skullcandy - depends.
the sure earphones seem to leave my ears a little "fatigued" after a hour or two at high volume.

dont be knocking the skullcandy titaniums tho - they produce infinately better sound than the bose i had (still have somewhere).
for their money, the skullcandy manages to produce a very nice tight low frequency bass and crisp high end, without sounding hissy.

having said that, my father was an audio nut - in perpetual pursuit of perfection - some outlandish equipment, including a pair of speakers the size of coffins weighing in at around 80kg each.
in his defence, the "coffins" produced an incredible sound stage.
ive not heard anything close to them since

 

[Grant]

Properly encoded (split stereo, highest complexity, low pass 18Hz, high cut 20kHz), 320kbps mpeg1 layer 3 is transparent to lossless unless you're using really high end equipment in a tuned environment.

I've found even on an analytical setup, 640kbps opus at full encoding complexity is fully transparent to lossless

ta

never tried opus - will explore shortly

 

[Grant]

Properly encoded (split stereo, highest complexity, low pass 18Hz, high cut 20kHz), 320kbps mpeg1 layer 3 is transparent to lossless unless you're using really high end equipment in a tuned environment.

I've found even on an analytical setup, 640kbps opus at full encoding complexity is fully transparent to lossless



Ps. Aac is meh, the apple encoder is the best encoding tool but it's a pain to use cli. Opus is much nicer imo

so i'm seeing "audacity" (mac), supports opus

 

[agentrfr]

ta

never tried opus - will explore shortly

As a starting point try
Complexity = 10
Framesize = 20 ms
Bitrate per channel = 256 kbps

Leave scene detection on auto. Leave vbr mode on auto, do not use cvbr or hard cbr

 

[Ninja'd]

Never more an apt song title than The art of noise.

 

[agentrfr]

so i'm seeing "audacity" (mac), supports opus

View attachment 1711491

Start with audacity but I'd reccomend the official opusenc tool if you are happy in a command line. That way you know it's the latest version and it will be easy to do a batch conversion

Downloads – Opus Codec

Opus, the open standard, high quality codec. Presentation, documentation, comparison with other formats, download links, source code repository.

opus-codec.org

opusenc(1)

 

[lkpat]

I know you're asking serious questions but I cannot help myself.

I googled yeke yeke and it's the most 2000's thing I've seen in years.

Hey, give the man a break, it’s not Victor Uwaifo.

 

[Grant]

As a starting point try
Complexity = 10
Framesize = 20 ms
Bitrate per channel = 256 kbps

Leave scene detection on auto. Leave vbr mode on auto, do not use cvbr or hard cbr

so i tried a track "love kills" - freddie mercury.

opus version seems to have a bit more "depth" and "layering" - its hard to describe.
most definitely going to explore some more.

thanx

 

[Grant]

Start with audacity but I'd reccomend the official opusenc tool if you are happy in a command line. That way you know it's the latest version and it will be easy to do a batch conversion

Downloads – Opus Codec

Opus, the open standard, high quality codec. Presentation, documentation, comparison with other formats, download links, source code repository.

opus-codec.org

opusenc(1)

i figured audacity would be a good simple place to start.
going straight to opusenc for mac seems to involve downloading "macports" & xcode".

for now audacity will work as a "trial run", but i suspect i'll migrate to opusenc

 

[Grant]

Hey, give the man a break, it’s not Victor Uwaifo.

hell, earlier on in the same south african playlist i was listening to"
pata pata
weekend special
i never loved a man
and
the click song

i have no shame, and i wear my "shameless" badge with pride !!

 

[backstreetboy]

The world moved on to steaming yonks ago. I even deleted my offline music since the stuff not available on streaming I wont miss that much.