AAC or MP3-Which Sounds Better

[rt297]

As they are the 2 main choices for iTunes, what's the concensus on which format sounds better, AAC, or MP3? Sound only!

[mPowerHost]

I can get AAC and MP3 to sound identical (or at least to me anyway) when I set it right, but when I do, the AAC is smaller, so I'm using that.

[FL0OD]

AAC from source cd's is the only way to go.

[Phoenix]

about equally good (to my ear) but ACC has smaller size, so that's the advantage ;)

[jcv exc]

I didn't vote because I'm new to this. I have a question though:

are you comparing at the same bitrate? I'm importing my music from my CD's right now at AAC 128. How would you say that would compare to 128 MP3 or 192 MP3? I have a decent speaker system on my PC and the AAC 128 souded (to me) exactly like the 192 MP3.

[Nuke666]

AAC will produce the same sound quality in a smaller file, its not a question of which sounds better

[Moynahan]

ACC is new to me so im sticking with what i know and love MP3! baby!

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by jcv exc
I didn't vote because I'm new to this. I have a question though:

are you comparing at the same bitrate? I'm importing my music from my CD's right now at AAC 128. How would you say that would compare to 128 MP3 or 192 MP3? I have a decent speaker system on my PC and the AAC 128 souded (to me) exactly like the 192 MP3.

that's exactly what's pple are arguing about....

128 AAC is arguably = 192 mp3 ......w/ smaller file size....

but then again some pple can't really tell the different between 128 and 192 mp3.... so u can't really get one answer of which one is better (and same b-rate, or different) from different ears that pple have

[mookiemeister]

I can't tell the difference between AAC and MP3 at high enough bit rates... like above 128kbps.

[ming2020]

IM(ears')HO

MP3@192 is the way to go. Shock, horror -- but AAC@192 actually sounds worse to me.

Perhaps this isn't relevant, but I read that iTunes' AAC encoder is inferior compared to the fully licensed version in QuickTime. In any case, I have a bias twds FhG and LAME. Still, Apple could've done a lot worse by, say, adopting Xing. That would be the one true horror...

[evaD715]

128 AAC from source CD as much as possible. If not I prefer 192 MP3

[Asian_N02]

definitely AAC. No doubt!