Do you prefer an audio format other than MP3 and AAC? If so, what?

Why MP3 for non-classical/jazz?

SGT (Join to see) Because I am an audiophile snob... ;) Seriously though, it is kind of a long answer and the answer is only my opinion.

It has to do with the dynamic (volume) and frequency range of the genres. Classical and Jazz Music tend to have a wider range than other styles. In order to reduce the size of the file, the mp3 codec will remove frequencies that the human ear can't hear from both ends of the spectrum. Another part of the compression algorithm is the reduction of the sound files dynamic range. The codec will "normalize" the music's volume to make it more even across the board. Both processes tend to remove some of the "liveliness" (highs) and "warmth" (lows) in the sound. The resulting sound, especially with classical music, is somewhat sterile and doesn't feel alive. The loss of frequencies and dynamic range is less noticeable in genre's such as Rock, Hip Hop, Rap, and Country because their instrumentation tends to concentrate in the middle of the frequency spectrum and they do not have as wide a dynamic range.

All that being said, can I truly hear the difference between a song encoded in FLAC versus a high bit rate (320 kb/s) mp3? With the speakers I have now, nope. However, if I listen to them using my Sony Studio Monitor cans, then yes I can.

On a side note, I miss the recording studio I had access to in both Quantico, VA and Okinawa, Japan. At the end of the work day, and if it was not in use, I would spend an hour listening to music on their monitor set-up.

SN Greg Wright - I only know of FLAC (doesn't work in some required software and devices) and OGG. What would you recommend? WAV or WMA?


https://www.rallypoint.com/shared-links/the-difference-between-mp3-aac-flac-and-other-audio-formats-make-tech-easier?loc=similar_main&pos=2&type=qrc

SGT (Join to see) - FLAC has always been good enough for me, so I've not really dealt with WAV, and I would never use WMA because it's limited to the windows ecosystem, isn't it? (I could be wrong). In short, I've always just settled on FLAC, so really don't have experience with the others.

SN Greg Wright - Not sure without Googling. SSgt Mark Lines may off the top.

SN Greg Wright and SGT (Join to see) Yes, for the most part WMA is only supported in the Windows ecosystem. Wave files.. where to start. A Redbook standard music CD stores the music as cda files. All a WAV file is a one for one copy of the cda file. This does not include any equalization and normalization that your CD/DVD/Blu-Ray player does natively when it plays the CD. FLAC and Ogg, while an uncompressed format, the normalization of audio levels and the default equalization is encoded into the file. In short, they tend to sound better than a straight wav file. I hope that made sense.
It was mentioned that an album of mp3's is 30mb. That may have been true back when 96kbs was the standard bit rate. Now, it is not uncommon for an album to be 200mb to 300mb. I peronally use mp3's encoded at a constant bit rate of 320kbs. The sound quality is really close to FLAC. So close, that I personally can not tell the difference between the two unless I am listening to them on my Sony Studio Monitor cans.