OT: AAC > MP3

[RRSounds at aol.com]

I have bought over 50 songs at the Apple Music Store. I have yet to notice any overt aberration in any of the (AAC-encoded) songs I have bought.

Many MP3s sampled at the same rate (128kbs) are simply unacceptable. To me, anyway.

To my trained ears, and believe me, I am LOOKING for trouble, AAC is a real improvement. Still, when encoding my own songs, I will continue to encode using 192 kbps, even with AAC.

You may find your sensitivity to distortion is much less critical than mine. For those who want to go with AAC at a much lower rate (<128 kbps) in order to save disk space, I suggest you listen to a range of music before ripping your whole collection.

And remember, converting an MP3 to AAC can never improve fidelity, only reduce it.
One can only gain a real improvement in space saving versus quality when ripping to AAC from original uncompressed material, NOT from MP3s.

David P. Reaves, III
TransLanTech Sound, LLC