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Topic: How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis? (Read 72013 times) previous topic - next topic
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How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis?

Reply #50 –
I've been a bit lazy with HA recently, but I think I should report this event which happened a while ago:

After being happy with my Musepack Q7 collection for quite a long period I ran upon Joni Mitchell's 'Cool Water' in a normal listening situation. The music sounded subtly 'wrong'. So I did an ABX test and succeeded 5/5 without much problem. The problematic original part is here.

This disappointed me pretty much to the point that I came back to mp3. I don't care about bitrate, and with mp3 @~300 kbps I have a lot of practical experience and I feel pretty safe with respect to my personal quality demands.
lame3995o -Q1.7 --lowpass 17

How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis?

Reply #51 –
Quote from: halb27 on
This disappointed me pretty much to the point that I came back to mp3. I don't care about bitrate, and with mp3 @~300 kbps I have a lot of practical experience and I feel pretty safe with respect to my personal quality demands.

Just my two cents but on a personal level, I gave in to the fact that, whilst chasing the perfect lossy codec, my now 15-year old well-trained ears are actually to blame for most of the flaws I am still able to unexpectedly detect to this day whilst enjoying my beloved tunes, more than any modern lossy codec's own obscure, then-unheard-of flaw.

But that ended somehow as soon as I started to rely mostly on hybrid Wavpack and its whole new approach to portable encoding for my "lossy needs" instead.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis?

Reply #52 –
Yes, Wavpack hybrid and lossyFLAC are very good solutions, but being lossy too they take >400 kbps on average for peace of mind. If you can allow for that (I'm a bit on the edge here ATM) the best solution IMO.
lame3995o -Q1.7 --lowpass 17

How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis?

Reply #53 –
Quote from: halb27 on
Yes, Wavpack hybrid and lossyFLAC are very good solutions, but being lossy too they take >400 kbps on average for peace of mind.

I can't vouch much for lossyFLAC for simply not using it. And though I don't want this thread to drift off-topic, I must say on the other hand, you'd be surprised with the much lower bitrates you can get away with (~280kbps) for Wavpack's hybrid mode, as long as you acknowledged some simple, quite strong arguments for that:

a) the inherent real-world background noise where you'll be doing most of your portable listening is pretty similar to the white noise you may detect on some circumstances - which is obviously not the case with psychoacoustics-based encoders' artifacts;
b) the fact you can always have that ever-present reassurance you'll have the lossless correction file for any occasion that may arise when you'll have to re-encode anything.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis?

Reply #54 –
Quote from: halb27 on
This disappointed me pretty much to the point that I came back to mp3. I don't care about bitrate, and with mp3 @~300 kbps I have a lot of practical experience and I feel pretty safe with respect to my personal quality demands.
There is no reason not to choose the best codec (or codec setting) for each track, or at least each album, individually. Every codec has its own problematic samples.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

How is the quality of MusePack SV8, vs. newer codecs like AAC, Vorbis?

Reply #55 –
Quote from: Kohlrabi on
Quote from: halb27 on
This disappointed me pretty much to the point that I came back to mp3. I don't care about bitrate, and with mp3 @~300 kbps I have a lot of practical experience and I feel pretty safe with respect to my personal quality demands.
There is no reason not to choose the best codec (or codec setting) for each track, or at least each album, individually.
Sanity, and the finite lifespan of each human, seem like two fairly good reasons not to do this!

Cheers,
David.