elgoog
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OK, so continuing my previous post about music compression for Pocket PC, I am posting the results of my own few tests.
My test equipment/media consisted of: Toshiba e335 Pocket PC with WMP and PocketMVP, some cheap Philips AY3682 PCDP cans, and the music was Hotel California (live edition, Eagles) and Moldau/Vlatava (Smetana)
First, I tried MP3Pro at 32kbps. The quality was flat, there was a LOT of background noise, and both Hotel California and Moldau sounded quite flat. The stereo division wasn't quite accurate either. The pros of MP3Pro are that it is a lot smaller, and is playable with any MP3 player.
Next, I tested WMA 8. This was slightly larger (<10% size increase) but offered a dramatic improvement in quality. WMA's channels were more clearly defined, and the sound was much more live. This made the Moldau sound much better, but it made Hotel California sound a little too tinny. WMA also has a major problem with noise.
Finally, I tested Ogg Vorbis. I was surprised at first at the size of the file necessary; Ogg files encoded at a quality of -1 required somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% more space compared to MP3Pro. However, a quality of -1 equates to a bitrate of about 45 Kbps (according to the encoder). This varies a bit, of course, because of Ogg's compression algorithms. The quality, however, was impressive. Not only did it rival MP3s of about 64 or 96 Kbps quality, but the amount of noise decreased significantly. The sounds became clearer, and the midrange reproduction was improved significantly. the player I used for Ogg, PocketMVP, also provided a graphical equalizer, which unfortunately doesn't work for Ogg (I don't think
...). The fact that I had to install a new player would probably be mildly annoying if I didn't use it for Divx playback capabilities already.
In a nutshell, if you're a compression freak, go for WMA. I think i'm sticking to Ogg though, for now.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an audiophile of any sort. All these comparisons were in my own opinion, and not based on any scientific evidence. If you have had different experiences with these compression formats, please tell me! Just... don't flame me or anything, or if you do flame, make it humorous...
My test equipment/media consisted of: Toshiba e335 Pocket PC with WMP and PocketMVP, some cheap Philips AY3682 PCDP cans, and the music was Hotel California (live edition, Eagles) and Moldau/Vlatava (Smetana)
First, I tried MP3Pro at 32kbps. The quality was flat, there was a LOT of background noise, and both Hotel California and Moldau sounded quite flat. The stereo division wasn't quite accurate either. The pros of MP3Pro are that it is a lot smaller, and is playable with any MP3 player.
Next, I tested WMA 8. This was slightly larger (<10% size increase) but offered a dramatic improvement in quality. WMA's channels were more clearly defined, and the sound was much more live. This made the Moldau sound much better, but it made Hotel California sound a little too tinny. WMA also has a major problem with noise.
Finally, I tested Ogg Vorbis. I was surprised at first at the size of the file necessary; Ogg files encoded at a quality of -1 required somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% more space compared to MP3Pro. However, a quality of -1 equates to a bitrate of about 45 Kbps (according to the encoder). This varies a bit, of course, because of Ogg's compression algorithms. The quality, however, was impressive. Not only did it rival MP3s of about 64 or 96 Kbps quality, but the amount of noise decreased significantly. The sounds became clearer, and the midrange reproduction was improved significantly. the player I used for Ogg, PocketMVP, also provided a graphical equalizer, which unfortunately doesn't work for Ogg (I don't think
In a nutshell, if you're a compression freak, go for WMA. I think i'm sticking to Ogg though, for now.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an audiophile of any sort. All these comparisons were in my own opinion, and not based on any scientific evidence. If you have had different experiences with these compression formats, please tell me! Just... don't flame me or anything, or if you do flame, make it humorous...
