AAC vs. Mp3

What're the advantages and disadvatages of AAC? Is it really "lossless"? When I reencoded my mp3s (from 128kbs to 64kbs mp3s) a while ago they sounded like crap.

AAC is not lossless

Apple Lossless Codec is lossless

Re-encoding anything to a lower bit rate will hurt the quality

Can I encode music to Apple lossless? If so, how?

Apple lossless is in an .m4a container. Lossless codec from Apple requires iTunes 4.5 or Quicktime 6.5.1 to encode and I'd check your firmware with an iPod ( if this is the case) to see if it plays lossless. In the preferences in iTunes under Importing you can check Lossless.

So if I were to set it to lossless, and I deleted my library then reimported it, it would be in m4a?

Mac N00b said:

What're the advantages and disadvatages of AAC? Is it really "lossless"? When I reencoded my mp3s (from 128kbs to 64kbs mp3s) a while ago they sounded like crap.

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Just to clarify, even if you converted an mp3 encoded at 128kbps into a lossless format, your quality will only be that of an mp3 encoded at 128kbps. Lossless conversion cannot improve an audio file's quality.

I can't hear a difference so I stick with mp3 for compatibility reasons.

Mac N00b said:

So if I were to set it to lossless, and I deleted my library then reimported it, it would be in m4a?

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no. You would need to completely reencode every track, preferably fro mthe original source, to get it into aac or lossless.

Apple lossless codec sounds incredible FWIW when imported off an original CD

So to recap:

To get a perfect iTunes library, delete everything you have, set iTunes encoder to Apple lossless format and then reimport everything off the original CD's.

Downsides: The files will be HUGE. Battery life on your iPod will decrease due to the larger file size. ONLY iTunes and iPods will be able to play the files.

Personally I go with 160Kb AAC. The files sounds great, the size per song is alright and it's compatible with quite a number of devices. (Mobile phones, mp3 players, ipods, software players...)

Aptmunich said:

Downsides: The files will be HUGE.

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Your right, All through the night by Cyndi Lauper ripped off her 12 deadly cyns album is almost 30MB..... thats 6 times larger than an MP3

Don't compare it to mp3, though, its more like wav.

mp3 works with everything....thats why i like it

Mac N00b said:

What're the advantages and disadvatages of AAC? Is it really "lossless"? When I reencoded my mp3s (from 128kbs to 64kbs mp3s) a while ago they sounded like crap.

Click to expand...

So I have a tin ear, but i can't really hear any difference between an mp3 128 and a mp4a 64. Sure if you have a fine tuned ear (which 95% do not) you might be able to detect some small difference, but for the vast majority you do not. The biggest advantage of converting to mp4a is file size, you will cut your file size in half, therefore instead of 200 some files on a cd you can get about 400 some.

The disavantage to doing so is compatability. Many programs that use an mp3 don't use a mp4a. Of course with a little extra work you can convert an mp4a back to an mp3.