Hi!
This is my first post on this forum. And I apologize for my bad English, unless is good enough .

I want to show You a simple test that I make with Tau Analyzer v1.2. I choose a few audio tracks and compress with same encoders with different settings. Next decode it back to wave files, “burn” with Nero Image Recorder as Audio-CD and mount this images in virtual drive. Such prepared CDs I run in Tau Analyzer. This is a result of my test:

1: Pearl Jam "You Are", "Get Right":

Ogg Vorbis aoTuVb3 -q8 - MPEG
Ogg Vorbis GTb3 -q8 - MPEG
Ogg Vorbis 1.1.0 -q9 - MPEG
MPC 1.14 beta --BrainDead - MPEG
MPC 1.14 beta --Insane - MPEG
Lame 3.90.3 --preset Insane - MPEG
Lame 3.90.3 --preset Extreme - MPEG
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Audiophile - CDDA
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Extreme - CDDA
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Normal - MPEG
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 300 - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 250 - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 100 - MPEG


2: Blackfield "Pain" , "The Hole In Me":

Ogg Vorbis aoTuVb2 -q9 - MPEG
MPC 1.14 beta --BrainDead - MPEG
Lame 3.90.3 --preset Insane - MPEG
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Audiophile - MPEG
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Extreme - MPEG
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 300 - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 250 - MPEG ("Pain") , CDDA ("The Hole In Me")


3: Lacrimosa "Kyrie (Overture)":

Ogg Vorbis aoTuVb3 -q8 - MPEG
MPC 1.15t alpha --BrainDead - MPEG
Lame 3.90.3 --preset Insane - MPEG
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Audiophile - CDDA
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Extreme - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 300 - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 250 - CDDA


4: Ian Astbury "El Che / Wild Like A Horse":

Ogg Vorbis aoTuVb3 -q8 - MPEG
MPC 1.15t alpha --BrainDead - MPEG
MPC 1.15t alpha --Insane - MPEG
Lame 3.90.3 --preset Insane - MPEG
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Audiophile - CDDA
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Extreme - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 300 - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 250 - CDDA


5: Yann Tiersen "Comptine d'ete n°17" , "Le compteur":

Ogg Vorbis aoTuVb3 -q8 - MPEG
MPC 1.15t alpha --BrainDead - MPEG
MPC 1.15t alpha --Insane - MPEG
Lame 3.90.3 --preset Insane - MPEG
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Audiophile - CDDA ("Comptine d'ete n°17") , MPEG ("Le compteur")
Nero AAC Codec 2.9.9 Extreme - MPEG
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 300 - CDDA
foobar FAAC 0.5.1 quality 250 - CDDA


As You can see, Tau Analyzer is pretty good tool. But question is: is AAC better then other codecs? What You think?

No tool, such as this, can effectively measure the subjective quality of a prceptual encoder. These results are all but meaningless. Sorry.

Funny results.
Tau Analyzer have failed on aac samples...
May be it is something related to cutoff filter used there...
EDIT: grammar

That was an interesting experiment! But again, you can't use waveform analysis to "prove" one lossy codec's "superiority" over another. In effect, the testing only speaks to the reliability of Tau Analyzer's detection ability. (which is pretty good, but obviously not faultless) ... Thanks for sharing your results.

There could easily be a lossy codec that passes as CDDA each time but doesn't sound good at all. Only ears can judge an audio codec. Comparisons like this are sadly not useful; on the contrary, they might be very misleading.

They are useful for improving Tau Analyzer.

Hehe yeah, was about to mention that too.