« I love Nic. | Main | Alien life form »

AAC vs Ogg Vorbis

There's an extensive thread at Slashdot comparing the relative merits of Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) -- the technology Apple is using for distributing files purchased through its new iTunes Music Store -- against MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

Some folks participating in the discussion seem to think Apple has it out for the Ogg Vorbis crowd; other feel that Ogg Vorbis is better sounding at lower bit rates.

Personally, I don't give a shit. AAC at 128K sounds great to me, and I'm going to convert all my MP3 files to AAC (they're all encoded in MP3 at 160K), so I'm sure I'll save a few gigs in the process and I'll never notice the difference audio-wise. Perhaps I'm not that sophisticated a listener. Whatever.

People have made AAC's case pretty clear -- 128K AAC is good enough for most people who aren't audio geeks; it supports the digital rights management technology Apple had to use to get the major labels on board with this store; and it's part of QuickTime 6/MPEG-4, a core Apple system technology. All those are big pluses.

All I can tell you for sure is that: That hideous monstrosity known as the Free Software Song is encoded in Ogg Vorbis. That's enough to make me run screaming from it like an n-stage case of SARS.

Comments

You're a moron, and a mac fanboy.

And you've got a tiny penis and no friends. I guess we're even.

cock.

Your lunch menu, Fred?

come on guys, be reasonable. most people can't pick up the difference in audio quality b/w OGG, AAC, and MP3. I prefer not to encode in AAC because it doesnt work in linux, so i'm all for that sweet Vorbis as well as MP3.

The fact that AAC is a closed, proprietary format is enough for me to choose Ogg Vorbis. The fact that it sounds better is just gravy.

Don't transcode Mp3 to AAC. It'll sound like shit unless you have CD Quality 320 kbps mp3.

Peace,

Ogg Vorbis; It's the ONLY way to fly...

WHy stick with crap and give into corporate shit. Apple want you to bend over and take it up your ass. come on.
OGG is better choice. No need for any excuses

Hey, kong, some of us LIKE taking it in the ass.

there is only two good audio compression methods
ogg vorbis is pretty good at low bitrates not good on rock though But AAC well i use nero aac encoder and i get decent HE-AAC 48kb thats right ogg and aac.Though I aaam a bit of a audiophile and LC-AAC 192kbs sounds pretty much tru cd quality