aac plus vs mp3

[wbfree]

I haven't found this info anywhere so..If I encode with aac will the various mp3 players recognize it, and will various cd players accept or be able to read it. I am in the dark about some of this and some of you guys are experts so thanks in advance.
Burnie

[gaekwad2]

No

[Koopa]

I guess AAC/MP4 is overrated, MP3 with alt preset standard has high quality and is compatible to car receivers, cd players, mp3 players.

[gaekwad2]

LC-AAC probably is, it's not that much better than mp3 and less widely accepted than Vorbis (I'm curious whether now it's as good as Vorbis (thinking of Sebastian Mares' 128kbps test*) and what the excuses will be this time if it fails to impress again).

HE-AAC/aacPlus on the other hand is very useful at least at ultra low bitrates (below 64kbps it is better than Vorbis).

*edit: just saw it has been finished, looks like Vorbis is still on top albeit statistically tied with most others

[ujay]

I can't tell much difference with MP3, AAC, MP4 once you get above 128kbps.

At low bitrates then AACplus sounds very good, probably because it doesn't encode a lot of naturally occurring dissonance and tends to sound 'sweeter', not because it is more accurate.

Maybe it's my old ears.

If compatability is your main concern then stick with MP3 and use one of the tuned presets, as Koopa suggests.

UJ

[gaekwad2]

The listening test seems to indicate the same.
(note though that V5 can't (yet) be used with the Winamp mp3 encoder)

If you're ripping with Winamp I'd wait for 5.13, it'll produce ~20kbps lower bitrates at alt-preset standard due to the bit reservoir bug having been fixed.