[Soundbuff]

I'm ripping and encoding with Plextools, using Ogg Vorbis set at Q8.

My question is: is Q8 overkill? Would Q7 sound just as good? The average bit rates are well above 200K - probably about 215K average.

So far, the average album size is about 98 MB. This seems like a reasonable average size to me, although some can be as high as 130-140 MB. Most have been less than 100 MB, though.

I wonder if Q7 would lower filesizes by about 10% with no discernable decrease in sound quality. I listen to classical music, which requires higher quality encoding than some other genres of music.

Am I overkilling it at Q8 or is this a good setting for classical? I'm trying to find the setting that would offer the highest ascertainable quality at the lowest file size, since I also transfer the files to a flash player with limited memory capacity.

 

[blessingx]

There's been a few comments over on HydrogenAudio about Vorbis maybe not excelling at specifically Classical. Worth looking into.

Old test, but...
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52176
15% jump with that album.

 

[Soundbuff]

Interesting thread. Looks like filesizes for MP3/Lame (alt-preset standard) are about equal to Ogg Vorbis at Q6.

I previously compared MP3/Lame to Ogg Vorbis at Q6 and found that I seemed to subjectively prefer Ogg Vorbis most of the time (though often it is hard to tell). Certainly MP3 has an advantage with universal compatibility.

I was not previously aware of the "alt-preset extreme" setting for MP3/Lame (have heard of the "insane" setting). What are your impressions of the "extreme" setting? Does it sound about as good as Ogg Vorbis Q7 since they are more or less equal for filesizes?

I also wonder if there is any need to use "fast" in the command line with Plextools since Plextools is already very fast...never would want to go back to EAC.

Edit:

P.S. What was the concensus you read on Hydrogen Audio about Ogg and classical? I find I like Ogg Vorbis a lot. Was the overall concensus that MP3/Lame was better for classical?

 

[necropimp]

aps and q6 equal in file size? you smoking something?

i recently did a comparison of different formats at ~192Kbps VBR q6 was almost 10MB smaller than aps (whole album)

i use musepack anyway... don't have a portable player and i'm hoping by the time i do there will be one with musepack support

 

[Soundbuff]

Well if you look at Blessingx's test, the same album encoded with Ogg Vorbis Q6 was 2.2% smaller than APS. So it is pretty close to equal but results will vary by album. Ogg Q6 is probably the closest setting to APS for filesizes.

 

[TooNice]

Isn't this thread really subjective anyway?

I am sure there are people who would go for no less but lossless, and there may be other people who prefers MP3 to Ogg Vorbis... So wouldn't it be easier to just conduct a personal blind test and decide whether the trade of is worth it in your opinion...

(Personally, I rip with secure EAC into Monkey Audio before, and FLAC now as I was considering a Karma.. And depending on how much space I have available, I just go with the highest settings I can afford - just to prevent any "what ifs").

 

[Soundbuff]

Right now I am ripping several albums twice to compare alt-preset fast extreme to Q8....so will be comparing the sound quality between them soon.

I suspect it will be very difficult to hear any difference between Q7 and Q8.

But I am curious for those who use Ogg...what Q level do you use?

 

[necropimp]

before i switched to musepack i used Q8

 

[zaguar]

Just ABX, but i reccomend using lossless if it will be used as a source, and mp3 for the longer battery life if portable. YMMV though.

 

[Zappa74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundbuff But I am curious for those who use Ogg...what Q level do you use?

5.5