Are you a fan of AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)?

That doesn't matter though because the masterings that are on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and pandora are awful anyway. Lossy or lossless makes little difference because garbage in= garbage out. I don't think anyone uses those streaming services with any expectation of high sound quality to begin with.

 

Another issue was download speeds, which is also less of an issue now due to increased download speeds. Space and download speeds together were a significant factor in using a lossy codec since even at the highest quality it would take less than 1/3 as long to download a lossy file.

 

Well, you don't need to use dithering for, say, 24-bit source conversions to AAC or MP3 since both lossy formats use float, not integer values & offer low-level resolution superior to RBCD...

 

I almost exclusively stream FLAC files through the music server at the house. For headphone listening on the go, it's FLAC files on the Fiio.

For driving in the car it's 256 AAC files loaded onto my 64 GB iPhone. They sound perfectly fine in the car and take up less space than 360 MP3 files.

 

Yes, before when storage was expensive. I have since re-ripped my collection to ALAC. The ones on my iPhone are converted to AAC though.

 

It's hard to have a meaningful exchange on this topic with someone who just plasters "terrible" and "garbage" labels on everything lossy, without going any deeper into evidence-based debate. And now you've switched arguments from "AAC is terrible" to "All the lossy masterings are garbage."

 

I'm finding it difficult to accept that Amazon has specific masters that were engineered to sound awful for the purpose of generating lossy versions It seems like this would actually cost them an extra.

I'm often offered to download for free the MP3 version of a CD I bought and as far as I can tell, the source is always identical.

 

The only garbage here is your cluelessness. Everybody (except you) knows that there are some excellent MFiT masterings on iTunes.

Masterings and sound files are usually provided by the labels, and I doubt that they are using especially bad masterings to generate their lossy MP3/AAC files.

 

I think I must have ripped my CD collection 3 times; once lossy with WMP, once in AAC with iTunes, and then I discovered secure ripping. Since then I have ripped everything to three folders (all with multiple backups); one with FLAC, one in ALAC which gets added to iTunes, and another in the highest quality VBR MP3 (which has worked without any issue with my last three cars and my wife's current car). As far as syncing to iDevices goes, I have one iPod Classic with everything on in 256K AAC, another older iPod with selected stuff in ALAC, and as far as my iPhone / iPad go, I either use Apple Music, or sync selected stuff converted to 256K AAC as you suggest, or I also use Onkyo HF Player which can play most formats including DSD and FLAC. Depends what I happen to be using at the time and what mood i'm in.

The key thing is to get everything ripped to a lossless format accurately, with the correct artwork and metadata (FLAC or ALAC have good metadata support, WAV less so, ALAC clearly suits an Apple / iTunes ecosystem better though anecdotal reports suggest that may be more prone to file corruption vs. FLAC). It's incredibly tedious and time consuming, but once it is done, and backed up safely, you can create music in whatever lossy format you want whenever you feel like it.

 

I use AAC exclusively for my mobile audio collection. In the past I have mentioned that I use a bitrate of 512kbps. Others have commented that this is unnecessary. Based on frequency response, I agree. Where I see the improvement is in imaging. Instruments and their placement seems more focused.

 

I'll let you do your own analysis to see if one can overcome prejudices or preconceptions. I would recommend software like Foobar ABX Comparator so you can do your own blind switching and challenge your listening acuity.

I have created audio file samples from untouched CD audio, that are perceptually encoded and then decoded, and saved to FLAC so there is no difference in your playback workflow between audio samples.

Here we sample 30 seconds of Tracy Chapman's 1988 "Fast Car", from her debut album recorded at Powertrax studio Hollywood, with seven Grammy nominations, including producer of the year. Performed acoustically and mastered before the loudness wars but after CD's infancy, the CD audio features generous spectrum to above 20KHz.

Uncompressed PCM Audio (wav)

FastCar_CD.flac (44.1KHz/16bit CD Audio)

AAC audio

FastCar_AACq2.flac (AAC Quality .2, resulting bitrate 49kbps)
FastCar_AACq4.flac (AAC Quality .4, resulting bitrate 126kbps)
FastCar_AACq6.flac (AAC Quality .6, resulting bitrate 278kbps)
FastCar_AACq8.flac (AAC Quality .8, resulting bitrate 303kbps)

Encoding workflow, Nero AAC 1.5.4.0:
neroaacenc -q .8 -if FastCar_CD.wav -of FastCar_AACq8.m4a
neroaacdec -if FastCar_AACq8.m4a -of FastCar_AACq8.wav
flac --best FastCar_AACq8.wav -o FastCar_AACq8.flac​

 

Cool, thanks!

 

I had no idea until today

 

I use AAC exclusively unless it's already been included in MP3 or something for me. Though these days I usually can't be bothered even downloading the digital downloads that come with LPs. For one thing I can usually just add them via Apple Music and another thing is that they seem to have a bizarre lack of Meta Data. I don't want to fill out Meta data on the entire George Harrison box set just so I can burn a CD now and then.
I just use the iTunes Plus setting which gives you 256k VBR since I think it's the best balance between quality and size. I figure it's good enough for Apple Music it's good enough for me and I can barely hear the difference between a 128k AAC anymore let alone 256k and 320k so whatever I'll choose to save disc space. That said I've got Rumours in ALAC at 96k 24Bit and I don't really want to re-encode that in AAC.
Actually, sometimes If I'm going to download an album say the Black Triangle Abbey Road for instance I'll seek out an uncompressed or FLAC version and burn it onto a CD just so I can do a more authentic rip into AAC.

 

I’ve tried AAC many times. My ears prefer MP3...at LAME v 2, v 0, or 320k CBR. If I said it sounds somehow “warmer” to me, you’d likely laugh. But thems are my ears.

 

I use the standard iTunes settings and I’m fine with it.

 

I'll post a quote from another forum with regards to gapless playback"

 

This feature is not exclusive to AAC or Vorbis. LAME MP3 does the same, using the tags ENC_DELAY and ENC_PADDING. Of course your playback device must be able to make use of these tags.

 

Your quote covers how I got around the issue of gapless with MP3 files: If an album is supposed to be gapless, I ripped it twice, once with individual tracks, and a second time with the entire album as one file (like I did with Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon). Then, I choose which one I want to listen to.

 

Personally i like AAC, I don't really hear much of a difference between a good flac rip and aac/high quality mp3. Not saying it isn't there but it's either small enough to my ears that i dont notice or what i'm listening to is so low production quality to start with it wouldnt matter. IE: Raw Black Metal, noise, crust/hc, speed/thrash that hasn't seen the light of day since the 80's, etc. So usually I am listening to said rips on my PC through a gaming headset or my ipod classic when im out and about on knockabout sony earbuds or through my trucks system. If i really want something better i have the dics and a decent high-fi set up plus nice quality cans.

 

I would challenge those that judge the sound of 256 or 320 as “terrible” to post an ABX test result showing just how terrible it is to them.

 

I find AAC at 256 ok for iPod listening. I convert everything to that when I buy it. I keep my entire music library in Flac and AAC. Until I invest in a Different portable player that’s what I will use.

 

Isn't this Apple's lossy codec? I did an MP3 shootout once and ultimately went LAME.

 

From what I understand, although AAC is the format Apple uses for purchases from the iTunes Store it is not just Apple's format. It was supposed to be the successor to the MP3 format and was developed by the same team.

When I need to use a lossy codec I use LAME-encoded MP3s because at the highest bitrates I could not tell the difference between the original lossless and the lossy version (based on casual ABXY testing using the headphones I'd normally use).

Another reason I use MP3 is that I had an issue with AAC's metadata and how it is stored. Metadata for MP3 is well documented on the internet, but when it came to AAC's metadata I found almost nothing other than it is stored in the form of atoms.

 

I have used it before (using the iTunes encoder/qaac). I think it sounds fine at 192kbps or higher. But when I buy music, my preference is always for a CD or lossless files. When I rip a CD, I rip with Exact Audio Copy to FLAC with Secure Mode on. Do it right the first time.