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I remember reading an article on audio compression formats a while
back, probably between 1-2 years ago, and I *thought* I found it on
the www.overclockers.com.au main page, but I can't seem to find that
same article now.

Anyway, in that article I remember it mentioning a particular lossy
audio compression format that was apparently preferred by audiophiles
because it supposedly offered superior quality to a 320kbps mp3 at
something like 192-224kbps, but it was fixed at that bitrate (that
doesn't mean it wasn't actually VBR, it just meant you couldn't really
choose the bitrate you wanted to base it around). Either that, or the
format was optimised for that bitrate so choosing anything else would
give less than superior quality.

I think it was also this format that took a lot of CPU time to
compress, but was fairly easy to decompress, making it ideal for
portable audio players. Unfortunately, I don't think this format is
supported by many (if any) players, but I still want to find out what
it was.

I've been reading a few articles on various audio compression formats
and I keep thinking that it was AAC that I'm talking about, but I'm
pretty sure the one I'm after was open source (AAC isn't open source,
is it?).

And while I've got your attention, are there any lossy/lossless audio
compression formats around for SACD or DVDAudio?

[Jens Rodrigo]

wrote:
I remember reading an article on audio compression formats a while
back, probably between 1-2 years ago, and I *thought* I found it on
the www.overclockers.com.au main page, but I can't seem to find that
same article now.
Anyway, in that article I remember it mentioning a particular lossy
audio compression format that was apparently preferred by audiophiles
because it supposedly offered superior quality to a 320kbps mp3 at
something like 192-224kbps, but it was fixed at that bitrate (that
doesn't mean it wasn't actually VBR, it just meant you couldn't really
choose the bitrate you wanted to base it around). Either that, or the
format was optimised for that bitrate so choosing anything else would
give less than superior quality.
I think it was also this format that took a lot of CPU time to
compress, but was fairly easy to decompress, making it ideal for
portable audio players. Unfortunately, I don't think this format is
supported by many (if any) players, but I still want to find out what
it was.


Unfortunately, I don't think this format is supported by many
(if any) players, but I still want to find out what it was.

It is Ogg Vorbis:
http://www.vorbis.com/
http://www.vorbis.com/faq/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg

And while I've got your attention, are there any lossy/lossless audio
compression formats around for SACD or DVDAudio?

SACD and DAD-A use always not compressed linear digital signals.

Cheers Jens