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Poll

MUSIC. MP3

~ 115 kbps or less (V6 ... V9)
[ 5 ] (2.2%)
~ 130 kbps (V5)
[ 9 ] (3.9%)
~ 160 kbps (V4)
[ 13 ] (5.6%)
~ 180 kbps (V3)
[ 11 ] (4.7%)
~ 200 kbps (V2)
[ 42 ] (18.1%)
~ 230 kbps (V1)
[ 7 ] (3%)
~ 260 kbps (V0)
[ 48 ] (20.7%)
~ 300 kbps (e.g. LAME  halb27's V0+)
[ 7 ] (3%)
320 kbps
[ 15 ] (6.5%)
I don't encode a music to MP3
[ 75 ] (32.3%)

Total Members Voted: 265

Topic: What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,  (Read 45704 times) previous topic - next topic
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What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Hi,

This is a new version of previous polls.

Cheers.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #1 –
MUSIC. MP3: ~ 300 kbps (e.g. LAME halb27's V0+)
MUSIC. Post-MP3 codecs : ~320 kbps or more
SPEECH, STREAMING (RADIO, PODCASTING) etc. Post-MP3 codecs : ~48 kbps

p.S. Speech: AAC - 48kbps, Opus - 20kbps, AMR - 12kbps.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #2 –
music: vorbis q5 (~160kbps)

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #3 –
I use Vorbis -q3 (~112kbps) for portable use and MP3 ~ 160kbps for sharing recordings of performances (as they might be re-encoded by the ones I sent them to)
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #4 –
I use:
  • Vorbis q5 (~160kbps) at home.
  • HE-AAC (fdk-aac) ~80kbps for mobile use on Android (I voted 96k, since there is no 80k choice).
Opus 96 kb/s (Android) / Vorbis -q5 (PC) / WavPack -hhx6m (Archive)

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #5 –
I only use mp3 when faced with a device that supports nothing else, but when I do I target around 192kbps. I can usually get away with 160kbps but if I really listen I can still sometimes pick out artifacts (the last time I tried at least) at 160kbps. With the improvements in lame I could probably get away with 128kbps but I hate to risk it because mp3 artifacts are like fingernails on chalk board to me.

For portable audio I generally encode to Vorbis q2 (~96kbps). I can rarely pick out an artifact at that bitrate, but I find Vorbis artifacts to not be as distracting so when it happens it doesn't tend to ruin my experience.

At home everything I use supports FLAC and I store my music in FLAC format on my ZFS array. Gigabit ethernet barely even notices the bandwidth needed to stream FLAC to every device in my house at the same time.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #6 –
MUSIC. MP3: I don't encode a music to MP3
MUSIC. Post-MP3 codecs : (HE-)AAC, Vorbis, Opus and other.: ~130 kbps
SPEECH, STREAMING (RADIO, PODCASTING) etc. Post-MP3 codecs : (HE-)AAC, Vorbis, Opus and other.: I'm not a user of a such categories.

I only use ALAC and AAC TVBR q63.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #7 –
MP3: V4 up to VO+ (Halb27's V 0 --cvbr 0)
AAC: iTunes/qaac- cvbr128 up to cvbr256 (iTunes Plus Setting)  Winamp FhG-AAC- vbr4 up to vbr6
Vorbis (aoTuVb6.03 Lancer build):  q4 up to q8
Musepack:  Standard up to Insane

Even in 2014, mp3 is still the only lossy codec that is close to universal compatibility with all devices and software.  Recently, I was provided with a new work cell phone (Samsung Convoy 3) that accepts 32GB micro SD cards and will play AAC, WMA, and mp3.  Loading music onto the card and updating the phone's library is a breeze, and all 3 formats play fine, including WMA Pro (a rarity).  However, the metadata of AAC files are a mess.  The phone reads nothing but the audio info and file name.  The situation with WMA is better with the exception of album art.  All is fine with MP3 files as long as the ID3 tags are Version 2.3 w/ V1 backwards compatibility (as is done by the default ID3 tag settings in foobar2000).

Thank goodness for Rockbox which enables one to use whichever codec that suits one's needs on any particular Rockbox'd DAP.  If forced to choose one lossy codec and setting for my collection, it would be LAME 3.99.5 V1 for reasons of compatibility, file size, speed, and transparency (to my ears).  V4 is usually near transparency for me (It's the setting I'm using for the Convoy 3 music files).  V3/V2 almost always achieve transparency for me.  V1 gives me an overkill "safety margin."  Ironically, no one has voted for V1 in this poll.  "Poor" V1 gets passed over/under for V0/V2 respectively.

My close second choice, if forced to choose one codec and setting, would be Winamp FhG-AAC vbr5 ("192" kbps).  The encoder is fast, the quality is overkill for me, file size is small (for my needs), and it is fully compatible with nearly everything ....... except the Convoy 3 and legacy devices/software 

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #8 –
only music:

MP3 (LAME): -V 0 and -V 2.85 (~240,~160)
Ogg Vorbis: -q 4 and -q 4.25 (~128,~132)
Musepack: -q 5 (~160)
AAC: I don't use this codec.
OPUS: I don't use this codec.
loquor mee menti: factus de materia, cinis elementi...

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #9 –
MP3:  V0 (LAME)
AAC: TVBR 63 (qaac)

I no longer use Vorbis or Musepak.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #10 –
MP3: not encoding to this
AAC (music for home): TVBR 100
AAC (movie audio): TVBR 91/100
AAC (movie comments): HE @ CVBR 80
Opus (music for portable): VBR ~96k
Opus (movie audio): VBR ~256k/320k depends on # channels
Vorbis: q6 or q7 not used any more although it's still superior to MP3

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #11 –
Recently I migrated to listening mostly dsf/dff or SACD rips. I even wrot a program for the purpose https://github.com/drogatkin/JustDSD

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #12 –
MP3 V2 - For compatibility
Opus at ~100kbps - For compactness
Musepack Q5 - For battery life
Lossless - For great justice

Heh, and I've been working with PCM data stored as one line per sample, one column per channel, text-encoded floating-point for random scripting hacks... but let's not go there.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #13 –
Let's see:

MP3 - I no longer use this codec.  If I have no other choice (older mp3 players when mowing lawns) then 192kbps -V2.

AAC - TVBR -90 which is around 200kbps so I voted for that.

I don't do much streaming.  Pandora if anything and that's 48kbps last I checked.
foobar2000, FLAC, and qAAC -V90
It just works people!

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #14 –
Wow, I had forgotten to participate in this one. So:

MP3: If I have to use this format for compatibility reasons (some kind of old player perhaps) I'll go for V5. I have used it in the past with no audible concerns, would like to think that's still the case.

AAC: I used to go for TVBR -70 for portable listening, but after more ABXing found I could go as low as -50. That tends to give a bit more than 96kbps on average, so that's what I voted.

OGG Vorbis: q3 for that one, again around 96kbps.

OPUS: Dunno, should experiment more with it. Not much decoding support for portables though (or non-android smartphones, I'm looking at you Microsoft ), so I'll stick with AAC for now.

STREAMING: Not an avid user of those services, but on Spotify I go for the default quality (OGG at q5) just because I can and it loads songs fast enough.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #15 –
Quite interesting that ~260 kbps is used by the second largest group of users (so far) for mp3 as well as post-mp3 codecs.
Seems to show that storage space is of minor concern nowadays.
lame3995o -Q1.7 --lowpass 17

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #16 –
Well my answers would be similar to this post so I'll just summarize it.

I mostly Use AAC Nero for storage, FLAC for a few portion of my favorite music
For Home/Silent attention listening: Q0.5~0.6 (170~195kbps)
Q0.4~0.5 for portable listening (140~170kbps)
Usually I use 0.4 for "easier" music like piano chamber or quiet music, Q0.5 for more agitated or my favorite tracks.
In some rare cases I may go as down as 128kbps for nero but I'd never use HE for music.
FdkVBR128kbps for video is often my first choice, but in some rare cases I may consider using HE for low quality video. But then again, a low quality video would probably be playing on a smartphone without headphones so I'd rather process it to mono 48kbits than using HE 48kbits or opus (due to lack of compatibility).
Mp3: When I need to use Mp3, mainly for compatibility issues, then I'd almost always go with V2~190kbps, but I may go down to V3 depending on the situation or if the sample is a easy one.
Vorbis (aoTuV): I used to use aotuv in the past, with 180~ preset. But nowadays I don´t use vorbis anymore.
Opus: Don´t see many point in using it. In some very specific cases I'd use it to avoid using HE-AAC which I detest the SBR sound, so that's bellow 96kbps.

Quote from: halb27 on
Quite interesting that ~260 kbps is used by the second largest group of users (so far) for mp3 as well as post-mp3 codecs.
Seems to show that storage space is of minor concern nowadays.


I dare to say this is not so much reflex of plenty storage (that's not really true for iphones and Nexus isn´t it?) but people still overestimating their hearing abilities as well as underestimating the power of placebo.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #17 –
I currently convert my FLAC files into V7 Mp3 files because when I'm listening on-the-go, sound quality is not important. My cell phone aka mp3 player has limited space, so I need to keep that stuff in mind.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #18 –
Quote from: Dark_wizzie on
I currently convert my FLAC files into V7 Mp3 files because when I'm listening on-the-go, sound quality is not important. My cell phone aka mp3 player has limited space, so I need to keep that stuff in mind.


If your phone supports AAC or OGG Vorbis you'll generally get much better quality out of those codecs at the same bitrates. In fact, if you're willing to deal with some quality issues you can drive AAC and Vorbis to even lower bitrates allowing you to store more music.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #19 –
Opus: 64-80Kbps for portable use.  128Kbps for storage.
I've used 32Kbps Opus for encoding lecture audio (voice).

I only use another codec if I absolutely have to - which I generally don't these days (all platforms I care about support Opus).

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #20 –
Quote from: yourlord on
Quote from: Dark_wizzie on
I currently convert my FLAC files into V7 Mp3 files because when I'm listening on-the-go, sound quality is not important. My cell phone aka mp3 player has limited space, so I need to keep that stuff in mind.


If your phone supports AAC or OGG Vorbis you'll generally get much better quality out of those codecs at the same bitrates. In fact, if you're willing to deal with some quality issues you can drive AAC and Vorbis to even lower bitrates allowing you to store more music.

I did some testing and found OGG to be the sweet spot. I managed to sit at 75kbps with OGG with ridiculously small file sizes... often <1mb... with amazing sound! Mp3's got nothing on this! I didn't even know such extensive lossy compression can sound this good! 

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #21 –
Quote from: Dark_wizzie on
I did some testing and found OGG to be the sweet spot. I managed to sit at 75kbps with OGG with ridiculously small file sizes... often <1mb... with amazing sound! Mp3's got nothing on this! I didn't even know such extensive lossy compression can sound this good! 

Try Opus @~48/~64

I too, changed since three months ago.

I exclusively use FLAC (don't listen much really, archive only).

*AAC (FhG) VBR 3 (~96 kbps) for my wife's car.

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #22 –
MP3: V4 (~160kbps), I only use it in my car, so it's probably overkill, but it's on an 8GB SD card, so there's plenty of space for my favorite driving music.

Otherwise, it's FLAC for everything. I've got the storage space :-)

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #23 –
Quote from: eahm on
Quote from: Dark_wizzie on
I did some testing and found OGG to be the sweet spot. I managed to sit at 75kbps with OGG with ridiculously small file sizes... often <1mb... with amazing sound! Mp3's got nothing on this! I didn't even know such extensive lossy compression can sound this good! 

Try Opus @~48/~64

I too, changed since three months ago.

I exclusively use FLAC (don't listen much really, archive only).

*AAC (FhG) VBR 3 (~96 kbps) for my wife's car.

Cell phone doesn't play Opus,. 

What bitrate do you use? [2014] (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, Opus etc.), music,

Reply #24 –
After doing some blind tests I have found that for me:
64kbps OGG = 128kbps MP3 = FLAC