The best popular audio formats
I looked around the forest of audio formats for normal use and chose the 5 most important ones. It is true that, in part, a bit simplified, a bit rough in presentation. I refrain from differentiating the exact settings of the respective codecs, that would be too complex.
I also don’t want to get into the nasty topic of DRM. The most important one I dropped is probably Vorbis. . Of course, I assume that the correct settings are used when encoding and that a high quality level is selected.
1st place:
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3)
The most widespread digital format, with good encoding (for example, with LAME) in high bit rates, a format of the highest quality and transparency.
Quality (4.5 / 5 points)
Popularity (5/5 points)
Compression (4/5 points)
Total: 13.5
2nd place:
AAC (advanced audio coding)
It became famous especially for its use in the Apple iPod, a codec that has small advantages over MP3 at low bit rates due to technical developments.
Quality (4/5 points)
Popularity (4.5 / 5 points)
Compression (4.5 / 5 points)
Total: 13
3rd place:
WMA (Windows Media Audio)
Windows proprietary format. Of course, Microsoft has the reins here, so variable format doesn’t run on all playback devices. Otherwise, no major strengths and weaknesses and, for example, the standard format with Napster.
Quality (4/5 points)
Popularity (4/5 points)
Compression (4/5 points)
Total: 12
4th place:
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) !!
As the only lossless codec on this list. FLAC works in something like a ZIP program: the original can be restored from the compressed file by approximately 50% without restrictions. In times of low hard disk space, a real alternative, especially since many playback devices can play this format. My winner of hearts, the popularity will certainly increase in the future.
Quality (5/5 points)
Popularity (3.5 / 5 points)
Compression (3/5 points)
Total: 11.5
5th place:
Wav
The original format of the normal audio CD data. Impeccable quality and still widespread thanks to the well-known compact disc. It actually started out of the competition because it’s completely unzipped.
Quality (5/5 points)
Popularity (5/5 points)
Compression (0/5 points)
Total: 10
