Advantages and disadvantages of the main digital audio formats
CDA:
Advantage
· It is the most standard digital format of all.
· Contains Digitized Stereo Music
· Play all audio spectrum
WAV (AIFF):
Advantage:
· It can contain other resolutions or even be monophonic.
· It can be considered a lot to record voices.
Disadvantages:
· It is considered insufficient for music.
· The most common are 16-bit and 44.1kHz.
· 8 bit 22kHz monophonic WAVs were only capable of reproducing this resolution.
MP3:
Advantage:
· It is adaptable for most devices.
· It is very accessible.
Disadvantages:
· You can force to pay for the use of codecs.
· Contains too many losses, making them clearly insufficient for the quality of MP3 players.
· Adds obvious losses in the stereo image, permanently missing the highest frequencies.
· It is one of the worst in audio quality.
· The higher the resolution, the more the MP3 will occupy.
· It also affects the definition and timbre of the instruments.
· It also removes certain sounds that move at the same frequencies as another louder sound.
· Add excessive modifications to the original music.
WMA:
Advantage:
· Improve MP3 quality.
· There does not seem to be an advantage to using a proprietary format having free alternatives.
· All Windows and many MP3 players support it natively.
Disadvantages:
· Over the years it may become obsolete or discontinued by Microsoft.
· Add artifacts and losses similar to MP3, although lighter.
OGG (Vorbis):
Advantage:
· It would be the equivalent of MP3 and WMA but free and free.
· The code of the codecs is open.
· It is available to the community, which can continue to improve it.
· It has excellent compression rates.
· Quality superior to that of WMA and much superior to MP3.
· Sounds better than a 192 Kbps MP3
· Adds a certain artificial brightness at high frequencies, the losses produced by psychoacoustic theory being much lower.
ATRAC3:
Advantage:
· ATRAC3 plus in an improved ATRAC format.
· Cuts at certain frequencies are auditively seen in secondary and treble instruments.
M4A / MP4 / ACC:
Advantage:
· Contains ACC audio.
· They are capable of playing video.
· The quality of the AAC is much higher than that of the MP3.
· Adds some distortion in the mid frequencies and digital artifacts in secondary instruments.
MPC (musepack):
Advantage:
· It is free and free.
· Excellent sound quality.
· It offers the best quality of all and the losses are practically negligible.
Disadvantages:
· It is one of the most modern and sophisticated formats with loss.
· The resulting files are larger.
· Codecs are not intended for low bitrates.
RA (Real Audio):
Advantage:
· Compress to limits to be able to transmit audio streaming through slow 56 Kbps modems
Disadvantages:
· Requires installation of Real Audio player.
· Slow, heavy and full of advertising.
APE (Monkey Audio):
Advantage:
· It is a lossless format.
· We compress but when unzipping we get the same files intact.
· Contains the full disk wave.
Disadvantages:
· It is a proprietary format.
· It has a discreet support on the platforms.
· Slow decompression.
FLAC:
Advantage:
· It is a free lossless audio format.
· The quality is equal to that of the APE.
· We use less processor.
· It is multichannel (accepts all streaming).
· Avoid annoying shorts.
· It is very compatible.
