Hi!

I'd like to know whether audio codec developers aim to solve problem samples in order to improve their encoder, or if they try to abx differnt songs of various genres? Or is both important for them?

I often only read abx reports of the same problem samples when a new alpha or beta is released, but i think that this won't improve general sound quality in every case, will it?

I'm just curious about it

Thx

Well, new problem samples are always found and tested. It's just that specific ones tend to show that type of problem much more strongly than others, even though many others show the same issue.
You have to tune it in regards to a song that has problem, else you'll not know what to fix.

In other words, for the vast majority of music no improvement is necessary, because at the settings being tested they are already indistinguishable from the original. The only reason for testing anything else is to make sure that the changes have not degraded them.