Why Sounds AAC Sooo Bad ?

[simon.giesen]

Hi guys,

recently I had some thoughts to move from my beloved Playstation Portable to a Sony Ericsson Walkman

Phone, the W950i.

As Sony Ericsson is not supporting ATRAC this would mean that I had to re-ripp all my CDs again, now in AAC.

So I installed several AAC encoders, including iTunes, FAAC and Nero 6 Reloaded.

I tried several settings, VBR, adaptive Bitrate, Main Profile, HE-AAC.

Nothing sounded good. I tried some classical music, some pop with "real" instruments and some jazz.

Everything sounded loud and clear but the punch was missing, the body of the instruments, the space and the air between the instruments.

I have all my CDs at ATRAC3Plus 352Kbit and they sound extremely good on my PSP and similiar on my NW-A 3000.

Also I ripped a CD in ATRAC3Plus 128Kbit and the result was impressive, much better than AAC.

When I loaded the AAC tunes on my PSP they sounded as shitty as on the W950i.

This is certainly not Hi-Fi.

Please, can you advise me? What shall I do? Sell my NW-A3000, rip all my CDs again in AAC and swith to a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone because having "one device for all" ???

For everybody who whishes a proof: I have prepared a sample file. Artist: Hande Yener, Sefkat Gibi, DDD Recording, ripped from original CD, Encoder: FAAC, Q=150, VBR, Cut-Off-Frequency: 20500 Hz, 5.7MB for 4:07,

AAC, Main-Profile. Please drop me a message. (Compared to ATRAC3Plus 128Kbit -> ATRAC3Plus much much much much better)

Edited August 6, 2006 by simon.giesen

[cauldron]

Have you tried using SonicStage CP to make your AAC files? A lot of reviews I've seen say the sound is different from files made by iTunes.

[simon.giesen]

Yes, Sony Sonic Stage CP is encoding AAC files with the LOW COMPLEXITY (LC) profile and CONSTANT BIT RATE. Sony uses the original Fraunhofer Codec as it can be reviewd by clicking on "About..."

Though, iTunes, I have to admitt, sounds better concerning AAC, since they use VBR.

Nevertheless, both AAC encoders implementations are no alternative to ATRAC3Plus.

Please advise me, I need your help. I can not believe that there is no possibility to feed a Sony Ericsson Walkman Handy with proper sound files...

[pata2001]

Don't use HE-AAC on devices that don't support it. Although HE-AAC is backward compatible, non HE-AAC compatible devices will only play HE-AAC tracks with half the bandwidth (shitty 22kHz freq response).

Have you considered MP3? In recent tests, Lame MP3, even at -V5 (which should give you the range around 128kbps VBR), is still competitive with newer codecs like AAC.

[simon.giesen]

Hi,

thanks, I will try LAME.

Well, currently I experiment with the PSYTEL AAC ENCODER.

These are my flags:

-br 128

-production

-qual 9

-profile 1

-c 20050

-low_ath

-resample 48000

the results are quite impressive. BUT: I can playback the files with Quick Time Player, when transferring

to a W950i non-production model the file is not playable.

What about the header information PSYTEL writes to the file? Perhaps they have 58bit ADTS headers and need to be converted? I will check this...

Anyway: WHAT SHALL I DO? MOVE TO A SONY ERICSSON WALKMAN PHONE OR STAY WITH A SONY ATRAC DEVICE???

[simon.giesen]

Hi guys,

I have purchased Apple Quick Time 7 Pro and encoded some files in AAC.

Quite good sound quality. Now AAC is serious. BTW: Quick Time 7 Pro USES A DIFFERENT ENC THEN iTUNES!!!

No I have to alternatives:

1.) Sony ATRAC Device, Sony Playstation Portable and NW-A3000 providing a high-end sound experience

2.) Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone W950i - always in my bucket, day-in, day-out, providing a GOOD sound

quality

WHAT SHALL I DO? ANY ADVISES?

[JustAnUnCoolCat]

Well, since you have found an AAC encoder that is giving you the results you wanted (haven't tried the QT7 encoder, but have heard good stuff said elsewhere..., but since i dont use AAC... dont really have the motivation to test) i guess it's a matter of you really deciding which combination of kit (assuming a fairly equal audio result with each) is more practical.

Then either stick with what you most want to be carrying, which i'm guessing maybe the W950i would be the practical choice), or more practically..

Get a bluetooth headset adaptor like say a Music Angel (i use one of those) to connect between the phones out of your preferred performing non-phone DAP and your headphones - then associate the BT adaptor to turn the adaptor/phones combo into a BT setup for the phone.

Then, you have it all..., no piece of kit goes gathering dust, and no choice needed between whatever grade of audio output on the W950i vs the other owned choices.

For mp3 (rarely), WMA (occassionaly), and ATRAC3/3Plus, i do what i outlined above with my preferred cans.. the music angel and a NW-A3000 or NW-NH1 (whichever i happen to take out the door) for audio playback - and a Blackberry 7100V for phone.

Ticks all the boxed, solves the prob for me..

Be Cool Always

'Tom Kat'