Re: [tlug] [C&C] AAC is lossy, FLAC is lossless

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 24/07/07, Brett Robson <tlug@example.com> wrote:

> To my ears ogg sounds better than mp3 because mp3
> easily can lose dynamics, funky music doesn't pump (listen to the snare
> crack), but turning up the bit rate on any format helps.

Are you speaking here of Vorbis (which does VBR by default) versus CBR
MP3, or are you comparing apples to apples (i.e. VBR vs. VBR)? I have
always suspected that Vorbis's psycho-acoustic model is better,
allowing for better sound at a lower average bit rate, but I've never
carried out a double-blind test.

> wav file formats can vary causing incompatibility issues.

You know that sndfile and mencoder and stuff can pretty much convert
any flavour of WAV to any other flavour, right?

> People often say they can't hear the difference but that's wrong. Even
> if they are not consciously aware of it the music sounds different, it
> has lost air, shine, sparkle and pump. That sounds like weasel words but
> these have real meaning to audio engineers.

No, I know exactly what you mean. Good code also has these properties,
and sometimes it is very difficult to qualify *how* it is missing in
bad code, just that it is. :)

--
Cheers,
Josh