Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio). Options

[Stone Free]

Many available formats and bitrates at Absolute Radio stations, I've selected two of them which offer a wide variety of styles from funk to metal:
http://absolute80s.com/listen/other/
http://absoluteclassicrock.co.uk/listen/other/

They are also using MP3@192 kbps and HE-AAC@64 kbps if you register to the site... or use Google

CODE

Windows Media Player 20k:
Windows Media Player 132k:

AAC+ 48k:
MP3 32k:
MP3 128k:
Quicktime 32k:
Ogg Vorbis 32k:
Ogg Vorbis ~160k:
Ogg FLAC ~1Mb:

Can someone rank these? Or should I assume that on the whole they are already in increasing order of quality, apart from the first one, not sure where that one fits.

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

[uart]

Another good-sounding 64 kbps AAC radio stream: HARDRADIO.COM

Thanks pyscho. Another one that sounds fairly good at 64 kbps (if metal 24-7 is your thing. ;p).

Many available formats and bitrates at Absolute Radio stations, I've selected two of them which offer a wide variety of styles from funk to metal:
http://absolute80s.com/listen/other/
http://absoluteclassicrock.co.uk/listen/other/

They are also using MP3@192 kbps and HE-AAC@64 kbps if you register to the site... or use Google

CODE

Windows Media Player 20k:
Windows Media Player 132k:

AAC+ 48k:
MP3 32k:
MP3 128k:
Quicktime 32k:
Ogg Vorbis 32k:
Ogg Vorbis ~160k:
Ogg FLAC ~1Mb:

Can someone rank these? Or should I assume that on the whole they are already in increasing order of quality, apart from the first one, not sure where that one fits.

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

I wouldn't assume they're already in order. From the limited amount of listening I've done so far it seems that aac-he 64 kbps is similar, but not quite as good as, 128 kbps CBR mp3. Probably somewhere between 96 and 128 kbps CBR with (a relatively good encoder).

Ogg 64 kbps sounds pretty similar to the aac-he at 64 kbps to me. I don't think I could separate them in a blind test.

The only other format I've been listening to is aac-he at 48 kbps which is also surprisingly good (considering it's very low bit rate). I'd probably rate it as similar to CBR mp3 at around 80 kbps, possibly even close to 96 kbps.

Sorry for all the subjective judgements, definitely take them with a grain of salt. It's very hard to accurately compare them just by listening to online radio where the different "stations" have different formats but also different content. The above is just a subjective ranking after listening to various of these stations for the last few weeks.

This post has been edited by uart: Jun 11 2012, 17:08

[uart]

I felt bad about so many subjective opinions in the previous post, so I just made a few blind comparisons. Sorry it's very brief but I only had limited time. I wanted to compare aac(sbr) 64kbps (nero @q-0.25 as that's the only encoder I've got) with various bit rates mp3s, upping the bit rate until my blind "which I prefer" picks became random. In the end though I only tested Lame(3.99r) at V9 (69 kbps) and -V7 (99 kbps) against the aac (sbr at 65 kbps).

With lame -V9 (about 69kbps) it was 100% (essentially no randomness) that I preferred the aac.

With lame -V7 (which was about 100kbps) it became pretty random as to which I chose as "best" each trial. Admittedly it was a very limited test, but it did tend to back up the notion that aac-sbr at 64kbps is roughly similar quality to mp3 at around 100 kbps. At least to my ears.

[IgorC]

You can try Apple HE-AAC encoder. It's better than Nero. http://listening-tests.hydrogenaudio.org/igorc/results.html
Winamp FhG should do better as well.

[Brazil2]

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/on-other-devices.html

Direct links:

Absolute 80s HE-AAC 64kbps:
http://aacplus-a8-64.as34763.net

Absolute 80s MP3 192kbps:
http://mp3-a8-192.as34763.net

Absolute 80s Vorbis 160kbps:
http://ogg2.as34763.net/a8160.ogg

Absolute Classic Rock HE-AAC 64kbps:
http://aacplus-ac-64.as34763.net

Absolute Classic Rock MP3 192kbps:
http://mp3-ac-192.as34763.net

Absolute Classic Rock Vorbis 160kbps:
http://ogg2.as34763.net/vc160.ogg

[Stone Free]

Many available formats and bitrates at Absolute Radio stations, I've selected two of them which offer a wide variety of styles from funk to metal:
http://absolute80s.com/listen/other/
http://absoluteclassicrock.co.uk/listen/other/
They are also using MP3@192 kbps and HE-AAC@64 kbps if you register to the site... or use Google

Can someone rank these? Or should I assume that on the whole they are already in increasing order of quality, apart from the first one, not sure where that one fits.

I wouldn't assume they're already in order.

I felt bad about so many subjective opinions in the previous post, so I just made a few blind comparisons.

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/on-other-devices.html

Direct links:

Thanks for the help, I just assumed that they [the encoders] were designed for differing purposes and so the quality's would have some hard and fast placing.