I did some searching and couldn't quite find any test results as to q8 on OGG Vorbis AuTov b5. Apologies if anyone already asked this, but I looked for quite awhile and couldn't find anything.

I am considering converting my lossless backups to OGG Vorbis after burning them to DVDR (I keep local copies on my HDD for easy use)... but I want to eliminate the possibility of artifacts. I will be playing these exclusively from the PC and not DAPs, so compatibility is not an issue for me.

My question is, has anyone been able to ABX ANYTHING at q8 including the killer samples with the auToV b5 encoder? I am quite content with the filesize of Q8, so I don't feel the need to go any lower than that.

Thank you.

Gurubolez certainly could ABX at this level. If he reads this, you will know.

No, I can't (not with 'usual' music at least).

If you want to save some space, have you considered switching to WavPack lossy?

since you're going q8 with OGG... you might consider going lossless all the way...

@Hydro: I don't really have too much confidence in that format for lossy just yet, it's too new.

@Bourne: Well, I get average 800-1000kbit with most of my music with lossless (I've tried FLAC, APE, Wavpack thus far). With Vorbis Q8 I'm cutting the space down to about 1/4 at best, and at worst for the most compressed lossless files I have, a little over half.

but I'm sure there will be a KILLER sample out there... :-)

I think only a hybrid encoder can be used to safely lower the data rate while always remaining transparent - for listening , multiple-editing, transcoding etc. Lossywav will be the solution. I think current wavpack @ 500..550k will save a lot compared to typical 800..1000k rates.

With vorbis I noticed bad transcoding artifacts when going from high bitrate to lower bitrate OGG.

For 250k I'd stick with mp3.

It wasn't AoTuV b5, but I ABXed Vorbis at -q8 once (with extreme difficulty) on this problem sample:
The Product
I could try it with b5 when I get home from work.

Edit: I've also just seen this thread which is probably of interest to you.