When it comes to the subject of “MP3 and sound quality”, one is entering a minefield. Hi-fi fundamentalists claim that many people no longer know what good sound really is because of MP3s. The accusation is not entirely unfounded, because MP3 is a lossy format. However, you shouldn’t make it too easy for him with judgment. After all, there is no uniform standard for MP3 quality. Another important question is: what about the sound quality of other formats?
What “lossy” means for the sound quality of an MP3 file
MP3 and other lossy audio formats such as AAC may have been lost. to. designed with the aim of saving storage space. Because at the time of its development, the storage capacity of hard drives was much more limited than it is today, and the download and upload rates were also insufficient for large amounts of data. Today, the bandwidth for streaming and wireless transmission over Bluetooth are limiting factors. So compression still has to be. How is the amount of data reduced compared to the original recording?
On the one hand through compression and on the other hand through the omission of certain sound information. Because not everything that is captured in a recording also becomes the compressed file. To limit the effects of data loss on MP3 quality, only information that is acoustically insignificant is ignored. To be more precise: particularly low frequencies and particularly high tones are cut off. Because people can only perceive extreme highs and lows up to a certain point or not at all.
That’s how high MP3 quality really is
A general evaluation of the quality of MP3 sound is complicated by the fact that there are different levels of quality. They are the result of the respective bit rate (data rate, “bit rate”), specified in kilobits per second (“Kbit / s”). 64 Kbit / s as well as 128, 192, 256 or 320 Kbit / s can be implemented. The following applies: The higher the value, the less data loss will be compared to the source material.
A rule that is mentioned from time to time states that from a bit rate of 192 kbit / s data loss is no longer important for auditory impression. The file format alone says little about the quality of the audio signal.
But there is no clear limit. Factors like music genre, system, and last but not least individual hearing all play an important role when it comes to evaluating the quality of an MP3 file. There are also differences between the audio formats: a file encoded in AAC at 192 kbps tends to provide a better listening experience than an Ogg Vorbis file with the same data rate.
What is the sound quality on Spotify and other music streaming services?
Some 20 years after its invention, MP3 is still the most widely used audio format on the Internet. However, there are other formats that play an important role in music playback today. An example of this is the patent-free Ogg Vorbis format mentioned above. The streaming giant Spotify also relies on this.
Other audio formats used by streaming services are:
- Apple Music: AAC
- Spotify: Ogg Vorbis
- Google Play Music: MP3
- Deezer HiFi: FLAC
Streaming providers are quite reluctant to provide information on the respective data rates. When the service launched, Apple Music announced that the streams would be streamed at a bit rate of 256 kbps. With Spotify it is 320 Kbit / s with high sound quality, also with Google Play Music. At lower quality levels, the bit rate drops below 200 Kbit / s. However, providers of lossless transmission clearly exceed these values: Deezer, for example, announces its high fidelity subscription with 1,411 kbit / s. The stream here is in lossless FLAC format.
