![\"Best](\"https:\/\/musicgearo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-is-the-Highes-audio-format.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDigitizing music involves compressing the original sound that may distort the work. AAC, MP3, WMA or Wav: which of these formats offers the best representation?<\/p>\n
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If we are not aware of or no longer aware of the quality of today’s music in its digital form, it is often because our audio rendering tools are so poor. This is due to the speakers that come with desktops or built-in laptops, but also to the headphones \/ earphones that come with MP3 players, which are mostly entry-level products. On the other hand, for those with high performance equipment, listening to poorly recorded or poorly coded songs quickly becomes unpleasant.<\/p>\n
![\"best](\"https:\/\/homedjstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Audio-Formats-Files.jpg\")
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Therefore, choosing the best audio format for the same recording is best for fun. Today, there are 5 main audio file formats: AAC (promoted by Apple, iPod and iPhone in mind), WMA (promoted by Microsoft), MP3, Wav and Ogg (the last three are neutral).<\/p>\n
In addition to the file format, there is another criterion called the compression ratio. The more a file is compressed, the more it removes the frequency bands in the music and therefore potentially small nuances that enrich the listening. The compression ratio is expressed in the number of bits, the basic computing unit. Values \u200b\u200brange from 56 Kbits \/ s (56,000 bits per second, minimum quality for radio or podcasts) to 320 Kbits \/ s. The lower the number, the more compressed and small the file will be, but the less comfortable it is to listen to.<\/p>\n
The sampling frequency is also important. This value is expressed in Hz and must be as large as possible to preserve the shape of the original audio signal and therefore the accuracy of the recording. In general, we prefer a file with a sampling rate for CD quality (44,100 Hz), but we also found lower quality files (22,000 Hz).<\/p>\n
The study from the Musiclassics studio.<\/p>\n
This online digital music sales site dedicated exclusively to classical music launched a modernization of its interface during 2009. On this occasion, the question arose about the best audio formats that its customers could offer. To make it right, the site invited 15 people (bloggers, musicians, fans, audiophiles) to a listening session in a professional studio. They had to judge from 1 to 5 the quality of 4 different musical excerpts representative of the diversity of classical music (voice, violin, piano, orchestra and heart), coded in 6 different ways: MP3 320 Kbps, Wav, WMA 192 Kbps and 320 Kbps, AAC 192 Kbps and 320 Kbps. Here are the results of this study:<\/p>\n
Examine listening results
\nFile formats average rating received (out of 5)
\nMP3 320 Kbps ……………… 3.1
\nWav ………………………………. 3.5
\nWMA 192 Kbps …………… 3.7
\nAAC 192 Kbps ……………. 3.8
\nAAC 320 Kbps ……………. 3.8
\nWMA 320 Kbps …………. 4.0<\/p>\n
Since formats compressed at 128 Kbps or less have not been studied, the difference in ratings is relatively small. However, the MP3 format, even compressed at 320 Kbps, is the worst with a significant difference. More surprisingly, the CD (Wav file) is located behind the WMA and AAC formats. These files seem to change the rendering slightly. It is observed that the difference in notation between the 192 and 320 Kbps compression is not significant.<\/p>\n
But too bad MusiClassics did not want to integrate the free and open OGG file format into these results. However, we noticed that as a consumer it would be better to choose 192 Kbps AAC or WMA files instead of 320 Kbps MP3 and 192 192 Kbps MP3. 128 Kbps files would score less than 3\/5, which is not satisfactory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"