|
| quote: | Originally posted by antronx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_14
.mp4 or .m4a is a container format, meaning its like a candy wrapper. I have not tried downloading an mp4 file from beatport, but i suspect they sell AAC encoded music under .mp4 extention. Mp4 does not have to be video and audio. It can be combination of anything. AAC is a more intelligent way of compressing audio than MP3. I have found out that music encoded at 192kbps AAC sounds as good or better than 320kbps MP3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding |
Exactly.
Beatport encodes mp4s at 170-205 kbps VBR using AAC compression which, according to tests carried out by www.soundexpert.info, works out at about the same quality as a 192kbps MP3 (depending on the encoder they use), so I'd stick with 320k MP3s personally.
AAC does tend to offer better quality at lower bitrates when working with bitrates below this, and in fact an AAC+ encoded at 320kbps is supposed to sound better than a 320k MP3... but it seems it doesn't make a lot of difference at that sort of range.
___________________
Stu Cox | 

|