Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms, Roxy Music, Prince coming to blu-ray Audio Dolby Atmos. Blu-ray: The New Ultimate Standard for Audiophiles?

[JRR]

No it’s not! Modern codecs like EAC3 are much, much better than the old MP3 at low bitrates.

Care to Elaborate?

 

[masterhw]

Care to Elaborate?

Dolby’s modern codecs are much more advanced than conveyed by simply dividing the bitrate by channel count (768kbps/11 channels ≈ 128kbps stereo).
Most of the channels have little activity, and EAC-3 is smart enough to allocate its finite bitrate where it matters most. EAC-3 is a contemporary of AAC and other second generation codecs anyway, much improved from basic AC-3 and MP3 (first generation codecs).

Yes lossless is still great when available, but it is a misnomer to assume EAC-3 works like each channel has a fixed bandwidth allocation. That would suck. I’ve been able to pass compressed audio tests before, but never for moderate bitrate EAC-3, it’s pretty good.

 

[JRR]

Dolby’s modern codecs are much more advanced than conveyed by simply dividing the bitrate by channel count (768kbps/11 channels ≈ 128kbps stereo).
Most of the channels have little activity, and EAC-3 is smart enough to allocate its finite bitrate where it matters most. EAC-3 is a contemporary of AAC and other second generation codecs anyway, much improved from basic AC-3 and MP3 (first generation codecs).

Yes lossless is still great when available, but it is a misnomer to assume EAC-3 works like each channel has a fixed bandwidth allocation. That would suck. I’ve been able to pass compressed audio tests before, but never for moderate bitrate EAC-3, it’s pretty good.

Ok, so still probably roughly equivalent to a 320kbps MP3 then? Still quite a difference from studio grade 48/24.

 

[Matt S]

Ok, so still probably roughly equivalent to a 320kbps MP3 then? Still quite a difference from studio grade 48/24.

I have compared back to back Apple streams with BluRay audio files and... perhaps its my ears, but the difference is not always apparent. Perhaps if I had some training I might be able to hear something?

Is there a thread on here specifically for blu ray / spatial audio album releases?

 

[aagstn]

Blu-ray audio has become my new focus as I have pretty much all the classic stuff I want on CD and the surround mix adds a new reason to listen again. I appreciate that Rhino in particular is putting the original stereo masters on the releases I have picked up so far so you get that in addition to a fun surround mix. Their Quadio line has been so good I have picked up everything from the current single album run and wish I had known when the Chicago and Doobie Brothers sets were available.