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A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

After more than 2 decades AAC is still one of the most popular lossy audio codec. It's everywhere: hardware level support on your phones, used by your favorite streaming service and of course iTunes.

But how do you use it? Which encoder, at what settings and how do you listen to your music?

Do this survey and let us know.

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #1 –
nero, qaac, fhg, fdk, faac, ffmpeg...
different encoders - different settings and "politic" (some use only cbr (ffmpeg?), some only vbr (faac)) - different result.

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #2 –
I use 192kbps QAAC on 1 song while the rest is V0 Lame.
Got locked out on a password i didn't remember. :/

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #3 –
I use Foobar2000 for making AAC(Apple) (from lossless files obviously) since Apple's AAC encoder seems to be considered the best (why bother with anything else as far as AAC goes?). my signature pretty much sums up what I prefer as far as AAC goes, which is pretty much TVBR q45 (96kbps) as I tend to use that as a general minimum for AAC, although for someone who likes to play it a little safer with AAC, can opt for TVBR q64 (128kbps) as I feel with any high quality encoder (i.e. Apple AAC/Opus) you probably don't need more than 128kbps or so otherwise efficiency starts to decline quite a bit for minimal sound quality improvements that many would probably not even notice on typical speakers/headphones.

p.s. I generally use Opus when possible but outside of Opus, AAC (Apple) seems to be best. I don't see much reason to use MP3 anymore (especially since the Opus developer said that in general Opus gives same quality as MP3 at about 60% of the bit rate (i.e. for example... Opus @ 80kbps would be about the same as LAME v5 (130kbps)) unless your device can't use Opus or AAC.
For music (especially on-the-go)...
-I suggest Opus @ 96kbps (or... 64kbps minimum, 128kbps maximum). *preferred choice*
-I suggest AAC(Apple) @ 96kbps (q45 TVBR) or 128kbps (q64 TVBR). *secondary choice*
-I use Foobar2000 (/w Encoders Pack etc) to convert FLAC to Opus/AAC(Apple).

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #4 –
For me AAC (Nero) Q0.41 has been doing fine for portable and home listening.
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
Wavpack -hb400x5cvm

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #5 –
It's so often used in live streaming, it's somewhat of a standard. I use it because I have to, mostly.

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: includemeout on
For me AAC (Nero) Q0.41 has been doing fine for portable and home listening.


Well  Q0.41 (146 kbps per channel) is pretty high so I am sure it's doing better than fine.

Out of curiosity, if you are doing that high of a bitrate, why not just use an easily available and actively* maintained encoder like FDK-AAC? What is in Nero AAC that made you stick to it?


*not really sure

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #8 –
I use Apple Application Support software, which contains Apple AAC encoder (Core Audio AAC). In fre:ac converter it detects whether it's installed and selects that instead of default one.
I usually convert all my flacs to m4a low complexity 192 kbps.

192kbps (stereo 320-380kbps) m4a files are almost the same in size as 320kbps MP3s, except they have a lot more information stored.


I don't know the technical side of other AAC encoders, but I've noticed others can store even higher bitrates than 192 kbps.


About that pic:

Code: [Select]
Format                      : AAC LC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                    : mp4a-40-2
Duration                    : 6 min 6 s
Bit rate mode               : Variable
Bit rate                    : 324 kb/s
Maximum bit rate            : 447 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Channel layout              : L R
Sampling rate               : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                  : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode            : Lossy
Stream size                 : 14.2 MiB (99%)
[/code]
 

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #12 –
Have updated the Wiki for Nero AAC http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Nero_AAC#Quality.2Fbitrate_control

P.S. We should update AAC article as well http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=AAC

There is no FhG Winamp's AAC encoder there. It performs better than FDK and Nero and comes 2nd after Apple AAC encoder in terms of quality.  http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Hydrogenaudio_Listening_Tests

Re: A poll on AAC: Which encoder & what settings?

Reply #13 –
Quote from: IgorC on
Have updated the Wiki for Nero AAC http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Nero_AAC#Quality.2Fbitrate_control

P.S. We should update AAC article as well http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=AAC

There is no FhG Winamp's AAC encoder there. It performs better than FDK and Nero and comes 2nd after Apple AAC encoder in terms of quality.  http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Hydrogenaudio_Listening_Tests

Thank you.
 
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