192 kbit/s listening test at SoundExpert
Reply #53 – 2006-07-06 09:37:07
Out of curiosity, I tested LAME, Vorbis, Nero and Musepack bitrates with the same set of 25 test tracks that I have used previously [1] [2] . At first I encoded the files with LAME 3.97b2 @ -V2 --vbr-new. The average bitrate was 196 kbps. As example, LAME seems to give a lower than average bitrate for classical. But my own bitrate table [16 hours of music, 150 different tracks] gives me 180 kbps for -V2 [--vbr-new]; you got 173 kbps. People listening other kind of music reported ~190...200 kbps with -V2 with peaks at 220 kbps and more. 173 kbps according to your methodology seems to be significantly different from what people reported in the past several times. I'm sure that a set of various disc would give good results for a bitrate table. Not necessary perfect, but at least worth to try With all respect to your actual bitrate findings SE bitrate calculations have its own “pros”. And the most important one is possibility of testing codecs in precisely close conditions because SE FBR values correspond directly to the samples being used for testing. I would rather offer some kind of coefficients for users in order they could recalculate SE FBR for classical music, pop/rock, electronics, trance, ambient, new age, speech and so on. So I don’s see a serious reason to change now SE bitrate calculation method.So testing something between -q5 and -q6 is not recommended by the musepack.net maintainers. Moreover, it's not representative (it's likely that people are using the old "presets").[/color] I've asked for help from musepack.net people.IMHO, you should change the test target to 198 kbps and tweak Vorbis, Muspack and Nero to produce exactly 198 kbps. Then all contenders would be within +- 2.6 kbps of the target. (195.4 - 200.5) Not bag idea. What do you think, people.