32kpbs public listening test

5 July 2004 11:06 by Lasse "cd-rw.org" Penttinen | 2 comments

With most modern formats reaching transparency, or getting close to it, at 128kbps as my Multiformat at 128kbps listening test demonstrated, the real arena where codecs are competing, and most development is going, is at low bitrates. There are important reasons for that: dial-up streaming, storage savings, bandwidth savings for the streaming station... such low bitrates can also be useful for 1 CD DVD rips.

This test's purpose is simulating a dial-up streaming feed. For that reason, bitrates are kept at 32kbps CBR, and VBR isn't being used.

The encoders and parameters tested are:

LAME encoder 3.96 -b 32

Ahead HE AAC+PS 32kbps CBR High Quality

Ogg Vorbis post-1.0.1CVS --managed -b 32 resampled with SSRC

Real Audio 32kbps stereo music codec in Helix Producer 10

QDesign Music Codec 2 Pro 32kbps at 32kHz, Quality mode

Microsoft WMA9 Std 32kbps at 32kHz

MP3pro 32kbps at 32kHz, in Adobe Audition 1.5

High anchor lowpassed at 7kHz with Sox 12.17.4