Opus Codec
Jan 11, 2018 at 7:46 PM Post #16 of 43
AAC is generally transparent around 128. Certain difficult kinds of sounds might require a bit more. By 192, everything I threw at it was transparent, except this one album.
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 3:04 AM Post #18 of 43
I use AAC 256 VBR for everything.
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 11:33 AM Post #20 of 43
as mentioned already, and it's totally logical, the variations between codecs pretty much go away once we reach a big enough sample rate. which could be said as "there is only one transparent sound" ^_^. to those who like myself are already very happy to save more space than flac with some 256kbps and a little paranoid about going lower, well first ABX is your friend, only by testing yourself can you totally accept if something is transparent to your own ears or not. and second, at those levels every codec does great.
the power of AAC over MP3 is to be able to stay quite transparent at lower sample rate than MP3, and opus goes to the max with pretty convincing sound at ludicrously low bit rates. that's where they really are different, not at 256kbps. personally I still don't use opus because it's just not compatible with all my gears(or it is but it's a little buggy and that pisses me off ^_^). but if opus was to become as universally integrated as the other codecs, I would make the move on it for portable use. that's my very sincere and personal opinion.
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 11:53 AM Post #21 of 43
How does it fare with tha Sammy Davis Jr album?

AAC192 artifacts a tiny bit. AAC 256 VBR is perfect with everything. I've encoded thousands of CDs at that setting and not one single problem. Whatever setting you choose, with AAC you should always use VBR. It only helps, it can't hurt.
 
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Jan 12, 2018 at 12:19 PM Post #22 of 43
I would probably still keep using AAC for my portable but since I have an Android phone which has built in compatibility for opus, I figured I'd try it and save some space. Still keeping the AAC files though because of the overall compatibility in case I have something that doesn't support opus.

Mainly if I get the same quality at opus 160 (or 128) as AAC 256, I'd be very content. From listening so far it seems that way, I just hope I'm not well overdoing it.
 
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Jan 12, 2018 at 12:47 PM Post #23 of 43
The only thing you want to avoid is having to go back and re-encode everything higher. AAC 256 VBR is totally safe with every piece of music I've heard, so the difference between 128 or 192 and 256 doesn't really matter to me. I wanted one file type that would work for everything- serious home listening with speakers, and lossy in the car.
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 12:55 PM Post #24 of 43
I would probably still keep using AAC for my portable but since I have an Android phone which has built in compatibility for opus, I figured I'd try it and save some space. Still keeping the AAC files though because of the overall compatibility in case I have something that doesn't support opus.

Mainly if I get the same quality at opus 160 (or 128) as AAC 256, I'd be very content. From listening so far it seems that way, I just hope I'm not well overdoing it.
I started out with mp3's. Then I discovered this lovely forum and started buying flac or ripping CDs to flac and then encoding them to mp3. Research lead me to AAC and encoding everything again to AAC 256. More research lead to Opus because I needed more room without dropping a bunch of cash on a 400 gig card. A majority of my music is some pretty complex metal with lots of riffs, fast drumming, and so on. I started encoding my toughest tracks and abx them against the other codecs. All I could say was wow. As I said before, I couldn't tell a difference between them. YMMV.

I haven't experienced any bugs using Opus across two different Android phones (using Neutron & foobar mobile) or my Rockboxed Sansa Clip.
 
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Jan 12, 2018 at 1:14 PM Post #25 of 43
The only thing you want to avoid is having to go back and re-encode everything higher. AAC 256 VBR is totally safe with every piece of music I've heard, so the difference between 128 or 192 and 256 doesn't really matter to me. I wanted one file type that would work for everything- serious home listening with speakers, and lossy in the car.
Right I hear you on the re-encoding, my lossless to opus conversion is taking 3 days, not the most exciting process haha. Some say what I have now is overkill but hopefully it's also foresighted assurance as the future draws closer.

I used AAC 256 for that purpose as well and it definitely worked well, hoping opus at 160 delivers the same.

I may just keep the AAC 256 on my laptop and keep my lossless on the drive.
I started out with mp3's. Then I discovered this lovely forum and started buying flac or ripping CDs to flac and then encoding them to mp3. Research lead me to AAC and encoding everything again to AAC 256. More research lead to Opus because I needed more room without dropping a bunch of cash on a 400 gig card. A majority of my music is some pretty complex metal with lots of riffs, fast drumming, and so on. I started encoding my toughest tracks and abx them against the other codecs. All I could say was wow. As I said before, I couldn't tell a difference between them. YMMV.

I haven't experienced any bugs using Opus across two different Android phones (using Neutron & foobar mobile) or my Rockboxed Sansa Clip.
Glad to hear all has went well with you in regards to opus on your phone. Even using the beta of the newest version myself right now, I haven't noticed any hiccups at all this far.

Looks like our experiences mirror one another as well as I'm also trying to stay with my 200Gb card of lossy music myself and not spend the extra cash if it can be helped. Lol
 
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Jan 12, 2018 at 3:00 PM Post #26 of 43
This all comes down to the use case. If you have FLACs and can freely transcode, then there's no reason not to aim low and then titrate back up until you are satisfied. If you're *buying* lossy, then you'll want to hedge your bets with something like 256k AAC. I would wager you could still transcode 256k AAC to 160+ Opus and not hear much.
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 5:22 PM Post #27 of 43
AAC192 artifacts a tiny bit. AAC 256 VBR is perfect with everything. I've encoded thousands of CDs at that setting and not one single problem. Whatever setting you choose, with AAC you should always use VBR. It only helps, it can't hurt.

Can you get us the clip?
 
Jan 12, 2018 at 6:38 PM Post #28 of 43
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