Smallest File / Mostly Transparent Encoder?, Have not been keeping up.. Options

[funkyblue]

Hello All

I have not been keeping with the latest goings on in the last few years.

Is these a consensus on an audio format vs file size that is mostly transparent?

I have always used V2 with LAME. (I still remember the --r3mix option!)

Currently I encoded a bunch of stuff with -V4 for portable usage and it has been great.

Is there any other file formats or options that give the smallest file size that is mostly transparent?

I know mostly transparent is not a scientific analysis but I am unsure if there is a happy medium now?

Thanks in advance.

[Anakunda]

Check hardware specs of the target player and if it supports AAC or OGG there's no good reason (except slightly lesser power consumption) to choice mp3. From all modern lossy codecs it has worst quality/bitrate ratio. I use for my phone AAC at ~192k-VBR which is kind of overkill but the advantage is the same files can be shared between portable, PC or interior multimedia player where they still sound transparent enough.