MP3, OGG and AAC sound quality and hertz under the microscope

After reviewing various information sources including recording forums, I came to some golden conclusions on sound quality. Not everyone knows about this and many people think wrongly! Sometimes marketing and advertising can make people think differently.

1. Each recoding of the sound does not bring an improvement in quality, only its deterioration is possible. Having recoded the sound from 128kbps to 320kbps, it will become worse.

2. Listening to music with a sampling frequency higher than 44100khz does not make any sense , only a few people with gifted innate hearing will be able to hear the minimum sound difference when compared with 48k or 96k. Or maybe I'm like this??? Do not even think, you are definitely not like that, because this is a rare natural deviation. But why then are such frequencies popular? The sound of the original is recorded at a frequency of 96k and higher, so that when re-recording it does not become worse. The fact is that when analog dubbing from 96k, the sound will have a frequency 2 times less than 48k. However, 44k CD-quality listening will be enough for our ears to hear the maximum sound quality.

3. Is AAC better than MP3 or OGG? This is not true, the truth is that no one format is better than the other!

- if you need low bitrate and traffic, then 100% winner will be AAC , the best sound quality at bitrates from 32kbps to 96kbps

- at bitrates of 128kbps and above, all formats have approximately the same quality, but MP3 will be the winner - due to its popularity and support

- super sound quality is achieved at bitrates from 192kbps, at such bitrates OGG sounds a little better, but the difference is minimal

Conclusion and recommendations

1. Try not to transcode the sound unnecessarily. Myradio24 will not transcode files if the bitrate of the uploaded file matches the required one.

2. Forget that files above 44100khz sound better. This is not true.

3. If you need sound with a low bitrate from 32kbps to 96kbps, for example, to listen to the radio on your phone over the Internet, choose only AAC format, because MP3 with such a bitrate will sound terrible.

4. Otherwise, use MP3. A compromise solution with good sound is provided by MP3 files with 128kbps, but we get excellent sound at 196kbps. Even higher bitrates, such as 256kbps or 320kbps, provide minimal sound enhancement that can only be heard with expensive high-quality speakers or headphones. And this means that most listeners will not be able to enjoy this quality anyway.

5. Although the OGG format is free, it is not of great value for broadcasting. We do not recommend using this format.

Bottom line: To listen to radio on PC, broadcast in MP3 format 128kbps or 192kbps, gourmets can broadcast in 320kbps. For listening on mobile devices, to save traffic, an additional stream in AAC format with a frequency of 32 to 64 kbps is recommended, to choose from.

Interesting fact

A healthy human ear hears in the range of approximately 20Hz to 20,000Hz, depending on age.

According to Kotelnikov's theorem, in order to hear the maximum frequencies, the original sound must be with a frequency 2 times greater.

Thus, the original sound with a frequency of about 40,000 Hz is sufficient to transmit maximum quality.

CD quality sound is recorded at 44100Hz, which is 10% more than what the human ear can hear.

By the way, over the years, we hear worse, children hear up to 20,000 Hz, adults up to 19,000 Hz, and older people up to 16,000 Hz.