AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is a lossy audio coding standard for digital storage and transmission of music. I break down how it compares to mp3, when it was developed and what products support AAC.
What is aac
AAC is a high-efficiency, lossy audio format that became the first audio compression standard for Apple’s iPod digital music player. The format was created by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and standardized as MPEG-2 Part 7 in 1997. Aac has replaced mp3 as the most popular encoding format for use on iPods, iTunes, portable CD players, video game consoles, DVD discs, and internet distribution of music.
AAC can encode up to 48 channels of audio at a sampling rate of 96 kHz or 24 channels of audio at a sampling rate of 192 kHz. AAC can also encode audio with a lower bit rate than mp3 while achieving similar quality.
Development of aac
After a round of meetings, a standard for a new audio format was created. The committee developing the AAC standard consisted of representatives from a variety of companies: Apple, AT&T Bell Laboratories (now Nokia Labs and part of Microsoft), Fraunhofer IIS (IAB), Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), Philips, Sony, Thomson multimedia and Verance Corporation.
Why AAC became the first audio compression standard for Apple’s iPod digital music player
The creators wanted their audio coding technology ready for prime time by identifying impediments to widespread adoption in the industry before releasing anything close to competition like MPEG-4 or Dolby Pro Logic II.
The popular audio codec, aac has begun to replace mp3 as the default format used by Apple’s iTunes store and compatible iPods. As such it is now probably one of if not the most widespread lossy compressed formats on portable music playback devices alike! A standardised open-source code with efficient compression abilities – this means you can enjoy high-quality sound while downloading your favourite tunes at practically no cost whatsoever (in comparison)
AAC provides listeners access to songs that closely resemble their original studio recorded versions even when stored digitally without any loss in fidelity which will make future HiFi upgrades much easier.
Codecs that it competes with includes; aac, wavpack, mp3 and LAME.
aac is a codec that’s able to encode up to 48 channels of audio at a sampling rate of 96 kHz or 24 channels of audio at a sampling rate of 192 kHz. It can also encode audio with a lower bitrate than mp3 while achieving similar quality. This makes it one of the best current codecs widely used today despite its relatively young age – it’s growing fast!
Why should I use AAC encoding?
AAC provides listeners access to songs that closely resemble their original studio recorded versions even when stored digitally without any loss in fidelity which will make future HiFi upgrades much easier down the road.
The pros of using aac vs mp3s
The aac format has a lower bit rate than mp3 and a similar sound quality. aac is a standardized and open-source codec that delivers a level of quality approaching a lossless compression at a fraction of the file size. The fact that aac is a newer codec and is constantly evolving, makes it more future-proof than mp3.
The cons of using aac vs mp3s
One of the main disadvantages of aac is that it is a newer codec and is constantly evolving, which can make it difficult to use and incompatible with certain devices. aac also doesn’t offer the same level of quality as a lossless compression format like FLAC. Additionally, aac files tend to be larger than mp3 files, although this may not be a disadvantage for some users.
List of devices that support the AAC format
Devices that support the AAC format include:
– Apple‘s iPod digital music player
– iTunes
– portable CD players
– video game consoles
– DVD discs
– internet distribution of music
Conclusion
AAC is a lossy audio coding standard for digital storage and transmission of music. It was originally created in the early 1990s by Sony, Philips, and IBM to be used on CDs with MPEG-2 video files or Super Audio CD (SACD) releases that contain high-quality recordings. More recently it has become an alternative format for online streaming services like Pandora Radio due to its efficiency at encoding sound data while still maintaining good quality levels–especially when using low bit rates such as 64kbps. If you use one of these services, there’s no reason not to try out this new medium!
