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MP3 320 vs AAC 320

Discussion in 'Sound Science' started by salannelson, Aug 29, 2009.
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  1. Killcomic
    I'm confused myself with this. I wonder how much exception bias is playing into this.
    Perhaps the mid/side stereo does allow more headroom for improved encoding as less data is used.
    I could tell the file itself was not clipped when I used foobar to adjust the gain level and it just sounded great after that.
    I'll have to play around a bit more and try to figure out whether I'm just hearing things or not and why.
  2. bigshot
    The encoder just boosted the playback volume a bit when it was setting up the file. It's encoded properly, it's just the flag for the playback level is too high.
  3. Killcomic
    Yeah. I wish there was a way around it.
  4. castleofargh Contributor
    anything that let you encode with a change in gain will solve that. in foobar you could add almost any sort of DSP to the encoding and lower the gain by 2 or 3dB in that DSP(like an EQ).
    of if replay gain solves your problem, just use the tags, or encode the gain change(also something available in foobar where you get the warning that the change is definitive or something like that).

    the issue really depends on where you plan play those tracks. I tend to limit stuff to replay gain for my sort of lossy archives, but on the µSD cards I make for my DAPs, it's all chaos and destruction with encoded EQ, gain, crossfeed, sometimes reverb. I'm crazy I have no fear!!!!
    on my computer I have -3dB on the preamp in foobar for tracks without replay gain metadata, and the rest, well it has replay gain per track and I set the playback with "prevent clipping according to peak". problem pretty much solved so long as the peaks were accurately calculated. but as I'm pretty paranoid I still have stuff showing up when I clip and I still attenuate the gain some more for my EQ. because F bitperfect, I'd rather just never have clipping.
  5. Killcomic
    You see, I have to use Mediamonkey as I use an iPhone and it's the only thing that lets me encode while transferring playlists to Apple devices. Unfortunately the encoding options are very, very limited. It doesn't even let you encode AAC over 210kbps variable!
  6. castleofargh Contributor
    can't help with any of that, sadly. I've been on foobar ever since I left the original winamp where I would make my own skins so it would look even worst. and the last apple product I used for more than 15mn, used floppy discs, from when they really were floppy.
  7. bigshot
    I use iTunes and it is flawless and seamless with the iPhone.
  8. Killcomic
    Unfortunately iTunes doesnt even see FLAC files of which I have over 3,000 in my collection. if it saw them, then converted them, I'd be a happy camper. But no, Apple has to be Apple and dump a turd in your soup one way or another.
    God I hate Apple.
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2018
  9. bigshot
    I batch convert FLAC to ALAC. No loss. It just takes a while.
  10. Killcomic
    But then I'd have to do that to ALL the music I get, extra steps that I really couldn't be bothered with. Ugh... I can only imagine the mess I'd have to clean up afterwards with orphaned folders, duplicates, cover files that went bye bye...
    I'm considering it, but what a pain! Also, I'm not even sure that iTunes has automatic file monitoring, which means I'd have to manually insert new music and to top it all off, I get a LOT of Japanese music with no Roman characters. How would I find them among my 14,000 songs after I dump them in the library?
  11. bigshot
    Yeah, it's a pain to maintain multiple libraries in any format though. That's why I don't even bother with lossless myself. I just encode everything to AAC 256 VBR. It sounds exactly the same, takes up less room and it plays on just about anything. I haven't had problems with tags not carrying across even with foreign alphabets.
  12. Steve999
    Could this do the trick for you. . . Foobar for Apple mobile devices? I see it has an advanced limiter, among other things.


    Even has meier crosfeed and a hard -6db limiter. Supports FLAC and AAC, Vorbis, Opus (state of the art lossy), etc., what could be cooler? Just a shot in the dark for you. . . I'd be tempted to try it myself just for the features if it works out for you.
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2018
  13. Killcomic
    I have tried it out but unfortunately it fails to read playlists, which is a deal breaker for me. I don't know what's the deal with mobile Foobar. Android couldn't play files with Japanese characters and the iOS version doesn't read playlists. They just can't get it right!
  14. iridium7777
    if you're on a mac, my experience may be useful to you.

    i decided to have iTunes manage my whole music library with Audirvana wrapper for when i need to play/stream anything that's high res. All my files got converted to ALAC for iTunes import, everything but dsd and dsf actually, those are in a separate folder that are pulled in by Audirvana. The nice thing about Audirvana is that you can wrap it up into iTunes and you don't even have to go into Audirvana if you don't need dsd or dsf files.

    I also have iTunes manage my library structure, i actually find it extremely intuitive to navigate that everything is sorted under Album Artist at the highest folder level and then each album goes under there.

    With that, i also do get a lot of music in flac, and immediate convert it using HumanMediaConverter into ALAC and import into itunes. For you to batch convert 3000 songs will probably take less than an hour, you can leave the tool running in the background or overnight, it's really not a big deal.

    I love iTunes because all my songs are properly tagged, easily managabe and album art is always inserted correctly. i don't have to worry about whether i have a jpeg in the root folder, if i named it folder.jpg or whatever. all my tags and album art in ALAC format have worked with my ONKYO, AK KANN and Sony WM1A with no issues.

    i unregistered my itunes from my my apple account and refuse it connections to online store in general. this way i tag/art/label things how i want without itunes trying to sync or force some garbage on me.

    I have close to 4000 cds that are being manged this way with absolutely no issues.

    if i want to play my ipod i automatically can sync to that too, either in alac form or have it downsample to 256 AAC automatically.

    if you strip itunes down from online fluff i actually think it's a phenomenal program, i've never discovered anything that is so easy to manage, as great as Audirvana is, i absolutely hate using it because it's crap compared to itunes.

    bigshot likes this.
  15. stonesfan129
    It depends. Which MP3 encoder? Which AAC encoder? If we're talking the best ones out there (LAME for MP3 and iTunes for AAC) then AAC should sound better because the encoder is more efficient and designed around a newer and better understanding of the technology.

    As far as managing your music collection - I can't stand iTunes for this. I relegate it only to purchasing music. For managing music, I far prefer MusicBee. I set it up to index my NAS drive when I log on. If I import new files, I push them to a playlist I have set up for my FiiO X1. And because the FiiO doesn't require any special software - it's just drag/drop through Windows Explorer - I can just set up a thing with my sync options and let it go.
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2018
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