The 2nd AAC at 128kbps public listening test

Lasse Penttinen
19 Feb 2004 11:27

The second AAC/MP4 comparison takes place due to the rapid developement of the codec technology.

Since the last AAC at 128kbps listening test, there has been a lot of development in the AAC codec market. Ahead/Nero got much better tuned, iTunes was released for Windows, Compaact! was launched, FAAC also got much better, according to reports, and Real Networks started offering the CodingTechnologies AAC encoder as part of their Real Producer application.
This test's purpose is to find what encoder performs best encoding AAC at an average bitrate of 128kbps.
The encoders and parameters tested are:

Ahead/Nero AACenc v 2.6.2.0 -internet profile, high quality, LC

Apple iTunes 4.2 (Apple/QuickTime) 128kbps

Compaact! 1.2beta3 (zPlane/HHI) VBR 5, high quality, LC

FAAC 1.23.5 -q 115

Real Producer 10 beta (CodingTechnologies) 128kbps