Is mp3 better quality than wma, ogg, wave or m4a audio file? How would you rank them - in sound quality?

Question

So many audio format out there which one is the best in term of quality I' ve always wondered.

Answer 1

MP3 is an older lossy audio codec. So in terms of sound quality, MP3 tends to not sound as good as other lossy audio codecs at similar bit rates. WMA, AAC,(i Tunes format, or also called M4A) And OGG Vorbis, all tend to out perform MP3. And lossless audio codecs, which retain a 100% perfect bit for bit carbon copy of a CD when you rip into those formats, will always sound better then any lossy audio codec. So WAV, which is lossless, will sound better then MP3, WMA, AAC (M4A) and OGG Vorbis. All lossless audio codecs have the exact same audio quality, because they all retain the full quality of the digital source from which you are copying.(ie. A CD)



The best, and most efficient lossy audio codec, which retains the closest sound to the original source like a CD, is usually considered OGG Vorbis, and WMA professional. Both OGG Vorbis, and WMA professional, are the only 2 lossy audio codecs which support bit rates beyond 320kbps.



WMA 9.2 however, is considered to sound over all better then MP3, but not quite as good as AAC(Aka... M4A)



So in order, for the codecs that you listed are...



1. WAV (lossless)



2. OGG Vorbis (Also is the most efficient lossy audio codec)



3. Wma professional



4. AAC (M4A)



5. WMA 9.2 (Overall better then MP3 , but not as good as MP3 at 128kbps)



6. MP3





These are a list of all popular lossless audio files. (All are equal to each other in performance)



WAV, ALAC, FLAC, WMA lossless, Apple Lossless, and Monkeys Audio.



NOTE: You need to download VLC Media Player in order to playback some of these audio codecs. Windows Media Player is not compatible with all audio codecs.



VLC is free, and is very popular. (It will play back just about anything)



Get VLC here→ http://www.videolan.org/vlc/



Hope this helps!

Answer 2

1) Wav

2) Ogg-vorbis

3) m4a (AAC)

4) Not sure if mp3 or wma is better.



Some things to mention though:



"M4a" is just a container (a file extension), it could refer to different things. The format you're probably thinking of is AAC, "Advanced Audio Coding".



The quality of a Wav (or of any audio file) depends on how it was created. If you ripped a CD as Wav, it will be exactly the same quality as the CD. But if you took an mp3 and converted it to Wav, it will only have the quality of that mp3.



Cd-quality formats are known as "lossless". Wav is just one lossless format. It's also uncompressed which causes it to use a lot of space. Compressed lossless formats are more practical. The most popular one is Flac but they sound equally good so it doesn't matter which one you use. If you have an iPod you'd use Apple Lossless, if you have a Zune you'd use WMA-Lossless.



But even formats like Flac take up a lot of space, which is why some people prefer to use Ogg for a balance of sound quality and compression. It's the best lossy format and it allows for high bitrates.



Though at equal bitrates I'm not sure which is better, OGG or AAC. If you needed to know that, I could find out.

Answer 3

Ogg Vorbis Vs Mp3

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

Is mp3 better quality than wma, ogg, wave or m4a audio file? How would you rank them - in sound quality?

So many audio format out there which one is the best in term of quality I' ve always wondered.