ExtremeTech have thrown up their Audio Codec Quality Shootout! Here's a byte.
Certainly a top consideration should be compatibility. We all have different audio devices, and it doesn't matter how good your music sounds if it won't play on your hardware. We'll leave that decision up to you; you know what software and devices you have and what they're capable of playing. Encoding time is another possible consideration, but honestly, modern computers encode audio so quickly that the difference in speed between one format and another is practically a non-issue.
This article focuses exclusively on sound quality. There have been audio quality comparison tests before, but they usually focus on a single pair of codecs ? often comparing the codec du jour against MP3. These are usually conducted in special listening labs, where extremely high-end audio equipment is used in a very controlled environment with expert, well-trained listeners. This method has its merits, but we think there's value it doing it a different way for a change. We wanted to find out which codec and settings sound best to normal people under normal listening conditions ? at home on their own stereos and computers, using their own speakers or headphones.
Audio Codec Quality Shootout
Certainly a top consideration should be compatibility. We all have different audio devices, and it doesn't matter how good your music sounds if it won't play on your hardware. We'll leave that decision up to you; you know what software and devices you have and what they're capable of playing. Encoding time is another possible consideration, but honestly, modern computers encode audio so quickly that the difference in speed between one format and another is practically a non-issue.
This article focuses exclusively on sound quality. There have been audio quality comparison tests before, but they usually focus on a single pair of codecs ? often comparing the codec du jour against MP3. These are usually conducted in special listening labs, where extremely high-end audio equipment is used in a very controlled environment with expert, well-trained listeners. This method has its merits, but we think there's value it doing it a different way for a change. We wanted to find out which codec and settings sound best to normal people under normal listening conditions ? at home on their own stereos and computers, using their own speakers or headphones.
Audio Codec Quality Shootout
