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Transparency of 320 Ogg Vorbis (Spotify Premium) and 256 AAC (Apple Music)

gorman

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Considering one is supposed to listen to music, while using Spotify, and not trouble samples, I'd say that yes, Spotify Premium is perceptively transparent. All listening tests conducted on Hydrogenaudio had modern codecs reaching transparency well before 320 or 256kbps.
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Transparency
http://soundexpert.org/encoders-320-kbps
I have tons of CDs that I've ripped throughout the years and I ripped them in FLAC. That's for archival reasons and transcoding purposes but I've been unable to ABX Vorbis at far lower bitrates than 320kbps, with DT 880. What I'm pretty sure of is that at those bitrates there's no immediately recognizable tonal difference in compressed music. So when I read "audio magazines" blabbering about "congested sound", etc. I laugh and turn the page.
 
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dfuller

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AAC is generally speaking the best of the lossy formats. I can't reliably distinguish AAC256 from LPCM 16/44. I still own a bunch of music in 16/44 and higher because lossy material doesn't behave itself in DAWs so if I want to reference something it's not the easiest thing ever.
 

gorman

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AAC is generally speaking the best of the lossy formats. I can't reliably distinguish AAC256 from LPCM 16/44. I still own a bunch of music in 16/44 and higher because lossy material doesn't behave itself in DAWs so if I want to reference something it's not the easiest thing ever.
For low bitrates Opus is superior to AAC as far as I remember. At 256kbps and over... I think LAME MP3, Vorbis, AAC and Opus are more or less equivalent to each other.

What I mean is that Opus supposedly reaches transparency at a lower bitrate than AAC. But we're talking bitrates far inferior to those used by Spotify (and other services).
 

Zedly

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Opus also has much lower latency, which would seem to make it a better choice for streaming services.
 

richard12511

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The improvement in Spotify's user interface vs. the Tidal outweighs the audible improvement Tidal has over Spotify. I have both, and I keep going back to Spotify. *raises shield*

I use Tidal, Qobuz, and Spotify. I can definitely hear clear differences between Master/Hi-Rez Tidal/Qobuz and Spotify 320, but it seems more likely that it's just a different master.

Spotify's UX is so much better than the other 2, but I use it the least, now. Usually I can find a hi-rez version of what I'm looking for on one of the other 2. I don't know why Spotify doesn't do Hi-Rez, as it feels like that would instantly crush all other platforms. Tidal also has atmos music, now, which is awesome(so much better than stereo IMO).
 

damian101

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IIRC Amir himself can pick 320 MP3 from LPCM WAV, so in an absolute sense no, they're not transparent. I would be shocked if any normal listener can detect a problem in program material, though. Note that it's often necessary to transcode for things like BT headphones though, and the resulting output may be noticeably degraded.
You really can't compare that. I myself have come across killer samples where MP3 320 kbps failed, while Vorbis at ~224 kbps was still completely transparent to me. I have yet to see someone successfully ABX 320kbps Vorbis.
 

Ambient384

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You really can't compare that. I myself have come across killer samples where MP3 320 kbps failed, while Vorbis at ~224 kbps was still completely transparent to me. I have yet to see someone successfully ABX 320kbps Vorbis.
Yep I'm the same can't tell 256kbps AAC & 320kbps Vorbis but I can easily notice killer samples with MP3 at V0/320kbps with the uglier ones being V4 ~ V2.
 

Palladium

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I don't understand why everybody is even talking about MP3 still.. no streaming platform uses it afaik

Because for an academic POV this is an ancient lossy format that stood the test of time waaaaaaay better than the initial design expected it to.
 
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