Compression: Turns a 4-minute song into a 1.86MB file at a bit-rate of 64Kbps. Approximately 65 per cent quality. Supported software players: Many, including MusicMatch Jukebox and WinAmp. Supported portable players: Includes most models from Lyra. Digital rights management: Like MP3 itself, it offers no DRM features at all. Pros: It’s designed to produce high-quality sound at lower bit-rates so tracks take up less space. Cons: Tracks will play on any MP3 player, but you’ll need a player that supports the technology to get the full effect. Also MP3 tracks lose high frequencies at low bit-rates.

Format: ATRAC3 Compression: Turns a 4-minute song into a 4MB file at a bit-rate of 132Kbps. Approximately 85 per cent quality. Supported software: Players include RealOne and WinAmp (using the Liquid Audio plug-in). Supported portable players: Only Sony products such as MiniDisc players and the new Sony Walkman. Digital rights management: Most commonly used with Sony’s OpenMG DRM wrapper. Pros: You can fit more tracks (produced at a lower compression rate) on your player. Cons: Only supported by Sony hardware and few software players.

Format: AAC

Compression: Turns a 4-minute song into a 4.06MB file at a bit-rate of 128Kbps. Approximately 95 per cent quality. Supported software players: iTunes, WinAmp. Supported portable players: Includes all of the Apple iPods. Digital rights management: Doesn’t actually have its own DRM, but Apple uses the FairPlay DRM wrapper on all iTunes songs. Pros: Supports sample rates up to 96KHz – twice that offered by MP3. Cons: It’s strictly patented and licence royalties are strongly enforced.

Conclusion Sound quality is subjective and depends not only on the listener’s hearing, but also the equipment the music is being played on. Our assessment of the quality produced by the different formats is just our opinion. It is safe to say, however, that while MP3 is still a good format at higher bit-rates, the likes of WMA, Ogg and AAC are all superior and there’s little to tell them apart. MP3PRO is great for producing much smaller files at reasonable quality, so long as your player fully supports the format of course. ATRAC3 lags a way behind, but the new ATRAC3plus is a marked improvement.
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Published on 30 October 2007