Syllabus: iTunes and the Technology Beyond MP3
“What’s the difference between MP3-encoded sound and AAC-encoded sound? AAC became part of the MPEG-2 standard in 1997 to provide efficient encoding for surround sound audio. It supports up to 5.1 channels (Left, Center, Right, Left and Right Surround, plus a low frequency channel). Its quality at 64Kbps is comparable to MP3 at 128Kbps. MPEG-2 AAC is a continuation of the MP3 coding scheme. Like MP3, AAC exploits the psychoacoustic properties of human hearing, using sound-masking techniques to achieve efficient compression with very little noticeable degradation in audio quality. Finally, it provides a compression advantage of about 1.3 to 1.4 that of MP3 with better sound quality.”
Related Stories
- Apple updates iTunes Remote app for new iPad Pros
- New class-action lawsuit accuses Apple of falsely advertising Season Passes
- Apple notifies users of very old OS versions about upcoming payment security changes
- Apple expands ‘Apple Music for Artists’ beta, reveals new iTunes promotional graphics
- Apple pulling the plug on ‘iTunes LPs’ format
- Apple to end iTunes Store access for first-gen Apple TVs, PCs running Windows XP and Vista in May
Comments
Subscribe to iLounge Weekly
1
Technology beyond mp3 is OGG. FREE, OPEN-SOURCE and overall better than AAC. Which is not free, or open-source.
bunch of bs if u ask me.
Posted by Stasyna in Irvine, CA on August 1, 2003 at 3:55 PM (CDT)
1
seems to yet another “unbiased” opinion piece about aac. and at least as far as i can tell these idiots dont even profit from lying unlike our thief-in-chief.
Posted by pbox in Irvine, CA on August 1, 2003 at 4:31 PM (CDT)
1
Would ogg vorbis have allowed the mild drm that ims uses? it is clear the the record companies aren’t going to license their music without such a scheme.
I think ogg is dead in the water without it.
Posted by realist in Irvine, CA on August 1, 2003 at 6:24 PM (CDT)
1
ogg and mpc are by far the best choice for home use.
i rip everything in either mpc, or ogg for stroing, mp3 @—alt-preset extreme for iPod.
Posted by stasyna in Irvine, CA on August 2, 2003 at 12:18 AM (CDT)
1
AAC sounds like a good idea, but isn’t there some kind of DRM enabled on them?
Also, I would love to see the ipod play .ogg files, many audiophiles have started swiching over their entire collections, but I won’t because of the ipod.
Posted by Unixmonkey in Irvine, CA on August 2, 2003 at 4:21 PM (CDT)
1
Just for the record, AAC *can* have DRM. Apple chooses to use a very mild DRM with iMS. Without this, the record companies weren’t about to license ANY music.
if ogg vorbis has this capability, then it may be possible that the record companies might one day allow legal download services to use it.
Posted by realist in Irvine, CA on August 4, 2003 at 9:19 PM (CDT)