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Topic: Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo (Read 17295 times) previous topic - next topic
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Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

I've searched the forum for interesting information about Ogg Vorbis. I use it for Internet radio listening (the station I listen to uses aoTuv at -q2), but I've found many old (2002-2005) threads about the supposed stereo collapse vorbis has even at ~128 kbps? Does Vorbis still suffer from these issues or was this solved?

Thanks in advance for good answers.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #1
I've searched the forum for interesting information about Ogg Vorbis. I use it for Internet radio listening (the station I listen to uses aoTuv at -q2), but I've found many old (2002-2005) threads about the supposed stereo collapse vorbis has even at ~128 kbps? Does Vorbis still suffer from these issues or was this solved?

Thanks in advance for good answers.


You might want to hint to the radio station about Ogg Opus.
Vorbis, AAC and MP3 are not that good at lower bitrates. (they where never designed for that)
There is a very cool guy doing lowbitrate tweaks on Vorbis though http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=AoTuV
other than that AAC+ was the king of low bitrates.
Ogg Opus is the the new kid on the block and and Chrome, Opera, Firefox, (and IE as well I assume) will support it under the WebRTC standard (Apple's Safari will hopefully tag along as well).

As to the stereo collapse, I've yet to see (or hear) any codec that handles really low bitrates well stereowise (it's in their design to collapse the stereo to save on bits). Although Opus is really impressing me so far.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #2
Does Vorbis still suffer from these issues or was this solved?


At that bitrate I would not expect to have stereo problems.  Threads from a decade ago aren't too relevant, Vorbis was quite new then.

Vorbis, AAC and MP3 are not that good at lower bitrates. (they where never designed for that)


q2 is ~100kbps.  Thats not a particularly low bitrate, and in fact Vorbis and AAC are designed more or less exactly for that range.  I doubt Opus has much if any advantage here, as all modern codecs should do quite well.

other than that AAC+ was the king of low bitrates.


At these bitrates, AAC+ is not recommended. 

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #3
I agree that 128 kbps is not a “low bitrate” by the customary usage of the term, especially in the context of streaming.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #4
I agree that 128 kbps is not a “low bitrate” by the customary usage of the term, especially in the context of streaming.


-q2 is 96-112 kbps generally through, although I saw the bitrate go up to 128 kbps on hard to encode music. And it is aoTuv vorbis, at least Winamp stream information says that.
So does ogg have a good stereo image at 96-112 kbps?

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #5
Also, at which bitrate would ogg be generally equivalent to -V5 LAME? -V2? 128 kbps CBR LAME? I am asking because I am considering Ogg Vorbis for encoding ripped CD music as well.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #6
Vorbis is a little more efficient the MP3, so I would expect it to require a slightly to somewhat lower bitrate as compared to -V5 LAME.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #7
Thanks, but what quality setting would that be? Is the Ogg Vorbis point stereo really as lossy as FhG mp3 low bitrate intensity stereo?

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #8
Thanks, but what quality setting would that be? Is the Ogg Vorbis point stereo really as lossy as FhG mp3 low bitrate intensity stereo?


Are you asking if Vorbis is comparable to MP3 in terms of stereo compression?  If so, I would say that its a little better.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #9
Thanks, but what quality setting would that be? Is the Ogg Vorbis point stereo really as lossy as FhG mp3 low bitrate intensity stereo?


Are you asking if Vorbis is comparable to MP3 in terms of stereo compression?  If so, I would say that its a little better.


How come? Because LAME has lossless m/s joint stereo while Ogg Vorbis has lossy point stereo. Or am I wrong? Or do you mean compared to the old FhG intensity stereo used at 112 kbps and lower?

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #10
Because LAME has lossless m/s joint stereo while Ogg Vorbis has lossy point stereo. Or am I wrong?


You're wrong.  Vorbis can do joint stereo as well as more complex methods.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #11
Let me just start by stating that Vorbis at q2 is my go to codec and quality for all my portable music encodes.

Now, might I ask about your application? Are you looking for "good enough" quality to load music on a digital audio player or are you looking for a codec and setting to use for your primary library/archive?

I've been using Vorbis at q2 for quite some time now and have had no regrets. I don't archive my music in Vorbis as any lossy codec is a poor choice for that application. My archive is FLAC, which allows me to encode to the most efficient/convenient/supported codec for the target device (largely Vorbis in my case as I tend to make that support a requirement in the products I buy).


Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #12
Because LAME has lossless m/s joint stereo while Ogg Vorbis has lossy point stereo. Or am I wrong?


You're wrong.  Vorbis can do joint stereo as well as more complex methods.


What are the main stereo methods for Vorbis? Because all those old threads are like "zomg Vorbis uses intensity stereo, stereo image collapse!". I know they are not accurate today, just asking for clarification so I can encode my music with Vorbis without regrets.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #13
It doesn't matter what the 'main stereo methods' are. The entire point of lossy encoding is to use psychoaccoustics to 'fool' the brain into thinking it's hearing a full bandwith signal in all its glory. Now if you are asking 'which vorbis quality setting will sound transparent to me?', the only person who can answer that is you with your equipment and your ears. I can offer you what *I* believe is transparent, but somebody will quickly come along with different music/ears/equipment and tell me I'm wrong or that THEY can hear artifacts at that setting. You need to test encode a few tracks at different settings and find what's comfortable for you. Now, all that being said if you still want a 'guideline' on where to start, I used to use vorbis at q5 after hearing it was 'transparent'. But I was curious and started hard testing for myself, and found that as low as vorbis q2 I couldn't reliably blind test against original files. Yay for me much smaller collection. For lame mp3 encoding, I find v4 is my transparency threshold if you truly insist on making apples to oranges comparisons since vorbis and mp3 use different methods to accomplish the same goal.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #14
You have many, many questions. A good proportion of them could, I’m sure, be answered with reference to the official documentation…
Quote
[T]he Vorbis spec provides for, and Vorbis release 1.0 rc1 and later implement a coupled channel strategy. Vorbis has two specific mechanisms that may be used alone or in conjunction to implement channel coupling. The first is channel interleaving via residue backend type 2, and the second is square polar mapping. These two general mechanisms are particularly well suited to coupling due to the structure of Vorbis encoding, as we'll explore below, and using both we can implement both totally lossless stereo image coupling [bit-for-bit decode-identical to uncoupled modes], as well as various lossy models that seek to eliminate inaudible or unimportant aspects of the stereo image in order to enhance bitrate. The exact coupling implementation is generalized to allow the encoder a great deal of flexibility in implementation of a stereo or surround model without requiring any significant complexity increase over the combinatorially simpler mid/side joint stereo of mp3 and other current audio codecs.
…and to the changelog for aoTuV with reference to stereo-related changes, the threads discussing aoTuV, and so on.

That will take care of most of the theory. In practice, Mach-X is, of course, correct in saying that no one else can tell you what will sound good to your ears.


Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #16
If I could honestly differentiate between vorbis q2 and flac 8 out of 13 times I'd be waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy down the rabbit hole shouting about how golden cable tips 'vastly improve spatiality and high frequency response'. That being said, I don't bother with dbt when deciding on a codec setting to use. I just encode at increasingly higher levels until the obvious smearing/artifacts are gone and be done with it. Why bother abxing with fighter beat or castanets? Neither of those are in my music library. And abxing always ends up with me chasing my tail with not so wonderfully produced (but still great music!) albums where I discover what I *think* are artifacts which actually turn out to be part of the recording! Not that abxing isn't important, it surely is when it comes to dispelling audio myths, but it can also give new users false ideas when they get 8 out of 13 guesses 'correct'. For now I listen with my sansa clip, my sennheiser iems, and my sanity intact!

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #17
If I could honestly differentiate between vorbis q2 and flac 8 out of 13 times I'd be waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy down the rabbit hole shouting about how golden cable tips 'vastly improve spatiality and high frequency response'. That being said, I don't bother with dbt when deciding on a codec setting to use. I just encode at increasingly higher levels until the obvious smearing/artifacts are gone and be done with it. Why bother abxing with fighter beat or castanets? Neither of those are in my music library. And abxing always ends up with me chasing my tail with not so wonderfully produced (but still great music!) albums where I discover what I *think* are artifacts which actually turn out to be part of the recording! Not that abxing isn't important, it surely is when it comes to dispelling audio myths, but it can also give new users false ideas when they get 8 out of 13 guesses 'correct'. For now I listen with my sansa clip, my sennheiser iems, and my sanity intact!


ABX testing lossy vs lossless is not in the same league as nonsense like gold cables or green markers on CDs.

Thanks for all the input through. So the conclusion is that current Vorbis does not destroy stereo and that I should determine my required quality by ABX testing. I will do that when I'll have time.

Quality of current aoTuv Ogg Vorbis stereo

Reply #18
Lossy artifacts or interconnects, the problem is still the same: a meaningful discussion cannot be progressed without there being a basis of facts upon which all parties can agree.

It is usually best to research before posting, especially when there is the risk of passing off incorrect notions as fact.