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Testing of iTunes AAC@256kbit/s finished

Finally the rating of iTunes AAC codec @256 kbit/s has got into 5% reliability limits and can be safely compared to other SoundExpert (SE) ratings of appropriate reliability. This codec was added to the rating system shortly after EMI/Apple announcement of forthcoming sales of DRM-free and higher quality AAC@256 music files in iTunes Store. The testing ended up with 5.71 points of perceived audio quality for the codec. Not very impressive indeed. One of the reasons is the bug mentioned earlier. The other reason is that the coder was probably optimized for lower bitrates because its quality increases from 128 kbit/s more slowly in comparison with other codecs.

But fortunately for music lovers (and unfortunately for SE) this rating might be pretty useless in the nearest future. There are persistent rumors out there that new Mac OS Leopard scheduled in October will have completely new AAC coder without that bug. And what is more there is no evidence that music in iTunes Store was coded exactly with the coder from iTunes and not the new one. When new AAC coder is available for public it will be added to SE for sure.

Meanwhile the latest iTunes Jukebox still uses AAC codec from previous versions, exactly the one tested here at SoundExpert. So its rating is still useful for Jukebox users. And still … Nero AAC coder is much better.

Thank you all participants of SE listening tests.

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