Is AAC better than mp3?

[kagoru]

Is AAC better than lame-mp3? Does AAC also have VBR options and do I need an AAC codec to listen to those files?

TIA.

[MaTTeR]

I'll let somone else speak about AAC, it's out of my scope;)

However, if your looking for something better than MP3 then I'd suggest you check out Ogg Vorbis. Better quality and smaller file sizes.

[kagoru]

can lame encode to vorbis? Are there any parameters that one should take care off?

[MaTTeR]

You can start with either Ogg Machine or HeadAC3he to transcode your AC3 to Ogg Vorbis. LAME is only used MP3 encoding.

A good starting point for Ogg Vorbis quality is around q2 which should give you something like a 96kbps file. Try it, you will like it;)

[Tes]

Originally posted by kagoru
Is AAC better than lame-mp3?

Yes, AAC is considered to be better than mp3 (encoded with lame) at similar bitrates. If you have more questions about AAC I suggest you search/ask over at the hydrogen audio forums: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/

[kagoru]

thanks, dude! But what about .ogg vs AAC?

[SimonSez07]

Good Question!! I use VBR Ogg Vorbis now, but I'm very interested in VBR AAC, and what potential it has (especially in .MP4 video files).

[Tes]

How AAC compares to Vorbis is another matter altogether ;)

They seem to be very close in quality with maybe AAC slightly in the lead in some cases, at least in some old listening test results I have seen (this may have changed since then). I don't feel that I am qualified to make any more assumptions since I have not extensively tested the two codecs against each other. If you ask over at the hydrogenaudio forums some better informed/experienced people can answer your question any maybe point you to the results of some blind listening tests. Watch out though, as these types of questions can start flame wars if you are not careful.

In any case you will have great quality audio using either AAC or Vorbis.