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What is a good audio codec for Android devices that doesn't mangle the sound too much?

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First post, by mr_bigmouth_502

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I have a big music collection, and a good amount of it has been ripped to straight WAV files or FLAC. I like the audio quality of FLAC, and the fact that my phone can play it, but the size is a bit much. 🤣 I wonder if there are any decent-sounding "lossy" codecs out there that would be good for portable device use. MP3s are sort of out, because I've found that they can drastically alter the sound in some ways, particularly by raising peak levels into clipping where there shouldn't be any in the first place. I could use a limiter, but then I'd just be losing more audio information than I would by leaving the clipping alone. I know some loss of audio information is necessary to get the size down, but I'm sure there must be a codec out there that provides a nice compromise between MP3 and FLAC.

What encoders do you use, and what settings do you recommend? I have access to both Linux and Windows, so whatever you use will probably work for me.

Reply 2 of 9, by Matth79

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I've always followed hydrogenaudio's recommendations, the LAME MP3 encoder, and with the latest, the VBR presets are pretty much optimum. Lame is tuned to get good results at higher bitrate, while many others are tuned for passable results at lower.
If you want a set bitrate, then LAME abr (average bitrate) gives far superior results to CBR (constant bitrate) - most noticeable on a 32k test, where the sound is pretty much destroyed in CBR, but quite pleasant in ABR - certainly quelling the vicious artefacts that are plainly obvious in CBR.

OGG Vorbis may be another alternative, I'd assume there must be plenty of players that can handle it

Reply 3 of 9, by mr_bigmouth_502

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I've been considering going with OGG Vorbis. How would OGG at 192kbps compare to say MP3 at 320kbps? Also, is it true that VBR delivers better results than CBR?

Reply 5 of 9, by Stretch

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LossyWAV

I've never tried it but it is supposed to offer transparency. Looks like it will reduce the bit-rate by half in standard mode.

Win 11 - Intel i7-1360p - 32 GB - Intel Iris Xe - Sound BlasterX G5

Reply 6 of 9, by Matth79

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I've been considering going with OGG Vorbis. How would OGG at 192kbps compare to say MP3 at 320kbps? Also, is it true that VBR delivers better results than CBR?

http://nigelcoldwell.co.uk/audio/ - the examples I was looking at, particularly 32k MP3 CBR vs VBR.

CBR - Constant bitrate - encodes at constant bitrate, even for silence, with a very limited "bit reservoir" to allow the tougher segments to borrow from the easier.

VBR - Variable bitrate - encodes according to a "quality threshold", and highly dependent on the quality of the psychoacoustic model. You cannot choose a bitrate, but there are general ranges into which it will fall.

ABR - Average bitrate - encodes at a predictable overall bitrate, but uses VBR logic to apply higher bitrates where needed, with silence compressed to minimum and easier bits at lower.
The "VBR" samples above are actually ABR.

Looking at those examples, I'd forgotten about AAC - a VERY good codec indeed, 32k AAC is very listenable

Reply 9 of 9, by swaaye

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LAME or Ogg because OggDropXPd and LAMEDropXPd are so convenient.

Seems like the general vibe is almost any modern audio compression is nearly transparent at 128 kbps.

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