[Vorbis] AACplus

[Monty]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2005 at 05:35:40PM -0600, Borphee wrote:
> Ross;
> 
> > The listeners I mentioned were comparing MP3 128k streams and 48k AACPlus 
> > streams from the same organization.  They have several streams running, and 
> > the input audio is the same.
> 
> It's possible some of it could just be the settings used for the mp3 stream.

[...]

> But, at its best, with an 'average' bit rate of 128kbps, mp3 should easily beat 48kbps aacplus.  (Even at 128kbps cbr, I'd expect it to beat aacplus!)

Yes, add me as a 'me too' :-)

A decent 128kbps encoder should hand AAC+SBR its ass on a platter.
Respectable 128kbps mp3 encoders are very good today.  "Something is
wrong".

> >> But at lower 'streaming radio' rates, no, Vorbis isn't the best.  It 
> >> wasn't tuned / designed for those rates.
> >> Roberto's 32k rate listening test didn't show Vorbis in a good light...  I 
> >> doubt a 48k test would be much different.
> 
> Also, I faintly remember there were some comments after the test.
> 
> I think that maybe they used some poor settings or some resample issues or something.  The result was that vorbis might not have been at its best.

Speculation aside, I would not have expected Vorbis to fare well at
32kbps.  It simply wasn't tuned/designed for it.  Vorbis (as it is
now) was designed to scale down to ~64kbs at a time when mp3 wasn't
yet respectable below 192kbps.  Today's AAC is not actually the same
codec as the AAC everyone remembers from three years ago; they're
different, related but incompatable codecs taped together in a new
package under the original name.  No worries, we will update Vorbis
similarly and keep the same name so no one knows the difference :-)

Monty