Favorite Alternitive Lossy Codec?

[xequence]

To me, Musepack sounds the best. Second id go with Vorbis.

Wont touch AAC (not the apple one atleast) or Atrac.

[BWF89]

Out of the list I've only tried Vorbis and WMA. So I voted for Vorbis.

[xequence]

I dont think I missed any really popular ones...

Heh. Anyway, I like musepack.

[majikstreet]

I've only tried ogg vorbis.. but I'm no audiophile (yet!)

[rubinstein]

A few listening tests (It seems that Vorbis is the best codec):
MPC vs VORBIS vs MP3 vs AAC at 180 kbps:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=36465

80 kbps personal listening test (summer 2005), AAC MP3 Ogg Vorbis WMA
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=35438

[xequence]

Wow... Everyone likes vorbis alot. I was the only one to choose musepack ;O

I just did some of my own tests by myself and found Musepack to be the best.

[SilentCacophony]

I like Ogg Vorbis. Seems to give a nice quality/filesize ratio, and I like thier philosophy.

That said, I've also never tried AAC, ATRAC, or Musepack.

[Lord Illidan]

I think this poll is pretty much useless, since you left out mp3. I mean, no one is going to use WMA in here, seing that it is Windows meida audio...

AAC is more associated with Itunes, again, no one uses Itunes a lot in Linux, I presume..

Which leaves the rest I haven't heard about, like musepack and ATRAC... and then Vorbis.

Of course, I like vorbis, but since my mp3 player cannot play vorbis, and my entire audio collection is in mp3, and I don't see why I should re-encode them all, I would be more correct in saying that mp3 is my fav. audio.

[xequence]

I think this poll is pretty much useless, since you left out mp3. I mean, no one is going to use WMA in here, seing that it is Windows meida audio...

It is a alternitive lossy codec poll. MP3 isnt alternitive.


Which leaves the rest I haven't heard about, like musepack and ATRAC... and then Vorbis.


Musepack is an audiophile made codec. Atrac is sony made.

[ember]

Well, my favourites are mp3, then musepack, then ogg - yet I didn't notice any difference between Mp3 (-alt-preset standard) and MPC (~160kb). The Mp3 is slightly larger, but I can be sure that every mobile device I buy will play Mp3 - therefore it has won.

[Lovechild]

Ogg Vorbis with Aotuv optimization.. absolutely the best

[Malphas]

Vorbis definitely, I wish I could say the same about Xiph's video codecs.

[Iandefor]

I prefer Ogg Vorbis. Nice, small files, and it's open source, and the sound is good enough for my ears.

[Lovechild]

Vorbis definitely, I wish I could say the same about Xiph's video codecs.

Dirac will hopefully fill the void and Ogg Theora is definately not a bad codec either to be completely honest, I've used it for DVD rips previously and it's perfectly viewable.

[Alpha_toxic]

Ogg Vorbis. Unfortunatelly though, most of my music is in mp3 and converting from one lossy format to another is not a good idea. And re-ripping it all from the CDs will take too much time :(

Some stuff for comparison. Not very independant, but at least they leave the decision to you.
http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/listen.html

[Jay_Dogg]

Ogg Vorbis, I haven't tried the others.

[cvmostert]

I use ogg vorbis... i am new to it and it sounds good and its free... i just bought a mp3 player by iAudio.. the U3 and it is supposed to support ogg and flac! will try both soon! ;-)

[BSDFreak]

None, lossy sounds like crap to me.

[xequence]

None, lossy sounds like crap to me.


I doubt a 320Kbps MPC sounds that bad to you :P