which decoder for aac (nero vs winamp dll's) listening test?

[iradic]

hi
i wanted to do some abx testing but i need some advice on decoding files ...
that is which decoder to use ... i already decoded some with ffdshow 09-09-2005 (using libfaad2) ... but then i realized that ffdshow uses volume normalization (500%) by default ...

plus it seems that no decoder shows aac info properly ...

so any advice is welcome (decoder wise - ffdshow, coreaac, winamp any other) ...

[twist3d]

foobar should give good results: betanews download, latest version (http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/foobar2000_Full/1045605070/1) or from homepage (older version) http://www.foobar2000.org/ or you can also try in_mp4 from audiocoding.com (but it hasn't been updated for a year now).

[CiNcH]

As far as I know, AAC in ffdshow is based on Real sources, not supporting Parametric Stereo (only SBR).

I would go for CoreAAC being based on FAAD2 2.1 beta. Get a more recent build here:
http://www.aziendeassociate.it/cd//Misc/CoreAAC-1.2.0.573.exe

[edit]
Ah, I see, latest ffdshow build features FAAD2 decoding. Nice, you can still disable normalization...

[iradic]

foobar seems the best option for now ... (shows proper info plus writes to disk)
winamp decodes ok but info is wrong ...
i had troubles using coreaac and ffdshow with graphedit ...

from foobar:
bitrate = 48
channels = 2
samplerate = 32000
aac_profile = AAC HE
aac_header_type = ADTS
codec = PS AAC
----------
7739392 samples @ 32000Hz
File size: 1 451 137 bytes

or

bitrate = 61
samplerate = 32000
channels = 2
aac_profile = HE AAC
codec = AAC
tool = Nero AAC Codec 3.2.0.20
----------
7730178 samples @ 32000Hz
File size: 1 877 206 bytes

[stephanV]

foobar has an internal abx module too BTW. If you don't have the component installed you can download it. Just select two files, right click on them and select ABX test.