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2nd Multi-Format 128kbps Public Listening Test
technology is sexy writes "Roberto Amorim has launched his latest public listening test evaluating the performance of different audio codecs at 128kbps, among them Apple's AAC implementation (used in iTunes), LAME, Ogg Vorbis fork auTuV, WMA, Musepack and even Sony's Atrac3 format, which is soon to be used in their own music store. Read more on Hydrogenaudio and check out the results of prior tests. As opposed to most evaluations of audio codecs, this is a scientific test adhering to ITU-R BS.1116-1 as much as possible while still allowing everybody to participate."
Because "human auditory capacity" is not fully understood. Sure we can give standard frequency response graph, but most of these codecs take advantage of psycho-accoustic hearing models -- where certain frequencies mask other frequencies in our perception. Since this is a developing field, objective listening tests could really help determine what's working and what's not.
Because "human auditory capacity" is not fully understood. Sure we can give standard frequency response graph, but most of these codecs take advantage of psycho-accoustic hearing models -- where certain frequencies mask other frequencies in our perception. Since this is a developing field, objective listening tests could really help determine what's working and what's not.
From my understanding of MP3 compression and others, the compression protocols take advantage of this frequency masking, so if humans can't hear it, it removes it. It also obviously takes into account frequency ranges of hearing. As a side note, I think it might be neat to be able to compress 30-50% better based on your personal hearing characteristics, but it'd stink if you got old and had to not only wear a hearing aid, but also start collecting MP3's all over again.