Re: What is the bitrate of your Opus files?
Reply #29 –
96kbps is transparent to me. What I noticed is that up to 96kbps you get solid improvements for every 32kbps interval you give to the bitrate. After 96kbps, even if there is a difference for somebody, I bet the quality gain is less effective than the one given below 96kbps in 32kbps intervals. Not that there might be no quality gain, but most possibly not quite as big as the one you get for 32kbps intervals below 96kbps.
Yeah, I think what you say there would be difficult to disagree with given listening tests around here (which should be a pretty good estimate of Opus quality) because going by 32kbps bit rate increases, 32/64/96/128/160 etc, it seems like once you hit 96kbps things tend to largely peak in sound quality to where going higher, the sound quality gains tend to be minimal, and once you hit 160kbps seem to be pretty much the limit and going any higher seems to be largely overkill/waste of storage space (based on some comments I have read around here). so I kind of assume the difference between 96kbps vs 160kbps is minimal(if not very minimal) overall and probably requires optimal listening conditions etc to notice it. like it becomes more of a the thought of them being able to ABX it (at 96kbps vs say 128kbps or 160kbps) more than the difference actually bothering them (because the difference is faint) when just sitting back and enjoying the music.
so based on what your saying it might be roughly something like this, sticking to the 32kbps each increase standard...
32kbps to 64kbps = biggest gap in sound quality.
64kbps to 96kbps = a decent gap in sound quality. (largely cleans up the already pretty good sound to where artifacts should be pretty minimal at this point(96kbps))
96kbps to 128kbps = small gap in sound quality.
128kbps to 160kbps =smaller gap in sound quality.
160kbps to 192kbps or higher = smallest gap in sound quality. probably next to nothing in sound quality(?). basically efficiency is pretty much shot any higher than 160kbps from the looks of things.
so basically 96kbps offers the most sound quality for the bit rate basically (especially sticking to the 32kbps increase standard) which pretty much makes it that 'sweet spot' for Opus. I just said 'pretty much' just to leave a little lee-way in there as if someone disagreed with me, it can't be more than one setting either way of 96kbps sticking to the 32kbps (up or down in bit rate) standard. so in other words, the 'sweet spot' for just about everyone, who has a concern for efficiency, would be basically one of the following settings... 64kbps/96kbps/128kbps. so basically 128kbps is for those who are a bit more concerned with sound quality than storage space/efficiency and 64kbps is for those a bit more concerned with storage space than sound quality where as 96kbps is basically that great balance between the two. so while 160kbps is still a respectable choice, I don't really think someone could argue in favor of 160kbps in terms of efficiency as while it's probably a solid option for those who want maximum sound quality without getting too crazy with the bit rate, so it's not a total loss of efficiency, it does tend to take a solid hit in efficiency for minimal sound quality gains which makes it a little too high if you ask me since I sort of see 128kbps as a bit of a safety buffer for the already strong 96kbps setting (so it's not too surprising to see 128kbps the current leader in the poll with 96kbps being the 2nd choice) but even that already comes with a 25% increase in storage space etc.