[Icecast] AACplus

[Ross Levis]

Sorry for the crosspost but it's relevant to Vorbis and Icecast I believe.

I'm seeing more and more streaming stations using AACplus, with many 
listeners being amazed at the sound quality.  Most say that a 48kb/s sounds 
better than a 128kb/s MP3, which would put Ogg Vorbis at around 96kb/s IMO. 
That means only half the bitrate is required in AACplus compared to Ogg 
Vorbis for the same sound quality.  Up until this codec was available, Ogg 
Vorbis compared favourably with all the others.

Is there anything that can be done to bring Ogg Vorbis up to this type of 
quality in the future, or is it about as good as it's ever going to be?

I would rather use patent free and open codecs, but this type of bitrate 
saving, particularly for streaming, cannot be ignored, and I'm concerned 
that this will slow the uptake of Ogg Vorbis and may reverse it's popularity 
in time.

Ross.