Hear, hear! :wink:

That's absolutely true, my friend. Just make sure you're using the latest recommended version of LAME :!: The latest version is almost never the recommended one. You can find all you need to know about the recommended version of LAME here at Hydrogenaudio.org (and, of course, anything related to audio encoding :wink: ):

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?showtopic=478&

P.S. If compatibility isn't an issue :arrow: why not try Musepack (mpc) :idea: Unbeatable quality and smaller files compared to mp3 :!: :wink:

I have read many times that you should still be using lame 3.90

its supposedly still the best one

Tests are been made to check if 3.96 will be recommended as the best version, but for now 3.90.3 still the recommended one.
I personally don't see much trouble going with 3.96, but that's just me. :wink:

Old thread, but I must post here gain :D

I am now HOOCKED on EAC, with ogg vorbis :!:
After doing serious tests for several days, when I had some free time :lol:, EAC really does wonders on scratched media, and even disks with tiny holes on them 8O
As for MP3, MPR PRO, AAC(MPEG-4) and the others, Ogg just leaves them in the dust :!:
I did the "Dare to compare" test (with earphones) here: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/listen.html
DAMN!, even at 45Kbps, I still can't hear a difference from my original audio CD :!:
I am now using my PocketPC as my portable player, using this:
http://www.todayplayer.com/ and I'm getting an average of 2 minutes per megabyte with Ogg, encoding with: -q -1.0 :cool:
This is using the command line encoder oggenc.exe version 1.01
I'm NOT going back to MP3s :!:

-kwag

well, i'm still with MP3 to listen in my mp3player.....and nothing was encoded with less than 192! but OGG have good fame and i need to test it too!

Hi Jorel,

There are a bunch of portable players that are now out in the market, and they support Ogg :)
So it's a matter of time before most players will have firmware to play them.
I'm sending you a "little" sample I just did by E-Mail ;)

-kwag

@jorel,

You have a PM.

-kwag

oh thanks!.....i only see that i have a pm now...the pop up window on new private messages fail and in (profile)preferences is choosed "yes"!

The pop ups will work again later, when I switch the domain name back to kvcd.net :)

-kwag

Hi kwag,

About EAC you are completely right. There is no other ripper than EAC. 8)

About Ogg... did you compare Ogg X AAC with the same bitrate?
What kind of music are you encoding?

Hi muaddib :)
It's good to see you around :cool:
Yes, I compared Ogg vs. MP3 Pro, WMA and also AAC(MPEG-4).
It beats them all :!:
I compared instrumental music, "Raul Di Blasio", and also compared the CD of "Fleetwood Mac". You can "feel" the difference, as the AAC (second best in quality) high frequency responce is very close to the original, but you can hear that something is missing.
The Ogg samples reproduce almost identical audio quality, even at Q=-1.0 (quality encode), which is what I am using.
Go ahead and download the samples at the end of this page: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/listen.html

Specially this sample: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/liste..._minus_one.ogg
Which is a 45Kbps sample.
After you hear that, I'm sure you'll agree there's no other audio Codec that can encode that quality at that low bitrate :)

-kwag

That sucks my portable MP3 player only plays MP3,s and WMA :cry:

Hi bigggt,

Mine (Rio 500 and Creative Jukebox) too :(
That's why I'm using my Toshiba PocketPC as my portable player :)
But if you check out the newest breed of Rio, HP, etc. players, you'll find that they are already including support for Ogg Vorbis.
Last night, I finished encoding the following Audio CD's:

The total file size for ALL of these albums is 561,460,298 bytes, and sound is pristine :mrgreen:
I'll encode more tonight, to see how many will fit on one 700MB CD-R.

-kwag

Hi kwag,

Wow... that 45Kbps sample sound amazing for such low bitrate!
But I think I'll never encode at that low bitrate. I just need sound transparency. 8)
And I definitely can’t achieve transparency with that bitrate.

BTW, did you use HE-AAC with that low kbps test? :roll:
I guess that’s what is supposed to be used with low bitrates AAC encodes.

OT in...
@ muaddib
hy my dear friend! :drunkard:
advice: :evil: don't go away! stay with us, we miss you. :sun:
OT out...

@ Kwag
8O 8) fantastic results, colorfull sounds!

@ all
forget mp3! :hihi:

Yes i have the rio S30s

Guess i will have to talk the wife into letting me get a new one :wink:

Hi muaddib,

What do you mean by "transparency" :?: I used two different AAC encoders, and iTunes (MAC)
There's just NO comparison :cool:

-kwag

By "transparency" I mean when you can’t distinguish your source from your encode.

Transparency is really a subjective topic, because we have different ears, but for me, 192kbps MP3 is transparent. I could never distinguish a 192kbps mp3 file from the original wav. But to be honest, I use “--alt-preset standard” (that’s more than 192) just to be safe. :mrgreen:

Hi muaddib,

Try Ogg with -q 0 (~64Kbps), and let me know if you can hear a difference from a WAV to the Ogg ;)
Edit: Make sure you encode with oggenc.exe version 1.0.1 :!:

-kwag

download:
http://www.vorbis.com/files/
and EAC:
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac6.html

from hydrogenaudio thread:
For best results, use the quality settings:

oggenc -q n input.wav (where n is a number from -1 to 10)

Note: Most standard oggenc binaries can input FLACs as well!!

To get an idea of the average bitrate for each quality level:

1.0.1/aoTuV/GT3b1/GT3b2:

q -1 = 45 kbps
q 0 = 64 kbps
q 1 = 80 kbps
q 2 = 96 kbps
q 3 = 112 kbps
q 4 = 128 kbps
q 5 = 160 kbps/180 kbps
q 6 = 192 kbps/212 kbps
q 7 = 224 kbps/244 kbps