Size and quality of MP3 files
The MP3 file format is an “open format” supported by most manufacturers.
The MP3 format is one of the most common digital audio encoding formats. One feature of MP3 audio encoding is lossy encoding. However, the coding is based on a special model that takes into account the peculiarities of auditory perception. Therefore, the presence of losses does not lead to catastrophic sound degradation.
MP3 files have become a de facto standard and are compatible with the most popular operating systems, many CD and DVD players, and other devices.
Interestingly, the standard describes the actual storage format and not the way the sound is encoded. As a result, there are many tools available to play MP3 audio.
Special codecs are used to encode audio in MP3 format.
An audio codec can be of two types: hardware codec and software codec.
Hardware coding is done by special microcircuits.
Software coding is done using special computer programs.
Audio quality in MP3 format (all other things being equal) depends on the compression ratio (read the amount of loss) and the encoding program. That is why brand name players using well-known brand codecs and audio signal processing systems are significantly superior in playback quality to conventional devices assembled from standard assemblies.
The quality of actual playback depends on the size of the media data stream. The amount of data stream is sometimes called the stream width. There is a special term: bit rate. The data flow rate is defined in kilobits per second and is denoted kbs, kbps, kb / s. Recording can be encoded in several ways: constant bit rate and variable bit rate. Variable bit rate helps preserve details by increasing the amount of data.
Not all bit rates are suitable for high-quality music playback
