"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Jim H" wrote in message
news
Not much in it.

Without an ABX (which I know you wouldn't care about anyway)
difficult to tell the difference.
Treble clearer on the 2s(?)


I obtained a MP3 plug-in for Winamp and used it to perform the conversion
of
both Mp3 and Mp4 files to .wav files. I then checked them out for time and
level matching in Adobe Audition, and found them to be good. I then spent
several hours PCABXing, and frustrated myself with a lot of "random
guessing" type scores, even though at times I felt I was reliably hearing
a
difference.

Since the MP4 (AAC) format has received a lot of favorable press, and some
of this music seems like the kind of stuff that makes some MP3 encoders do
bad things, I think the time was well-spent.

I conclude that MP4 does not have a day-and-night advantage over MP3.
Thanks
Keith, for the stimulus to actually do the comparison.





OK, difficult to ignore a constructive, helpful and useful response.

My own initial feeling (in what was ostensibly a 128 Kbps CBR/MP3 vs.
110 -150 Kbps VBR/MP4 comparison) is that the MP4s sounded a little
'fresher' (more open in the treble?), but I haven't yet had the opportunity
to do this blind (using my own Electro-Acoustic Replay Scrutinizer), where
the tracks will be selected for me in random pairs......

Anyhoo, it don't end here! This file comparison was done at the approx. 5
Mb/track mark, but as it has been recently pointed out storage is becoming
cheaper, I want to ramp this up a notch to filesizes of about 7 Mb/track
which will allow me to try MP4s with a 160 - 250 Kbps VBR and also to bring
WMA files into the equation on an equal filesize basis, so if you feel
inclined suggest a more suitable type of music (artist, band or genre) and
I'll try to get as close as I can from the somewhat limited choice of, er,
'non-analogue original' music that is available to me.....