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From MP3 to AAC: How digital music formats have evolved, allowing you to hear clearer sound quality!
The evolution of digital music has undergone tremendous changes since the widespread adoption of the MP3 format. MP3 has conquered the entire music market with its convenient file size and relatively good sound quality. However, with the advancement of technology, a new audio encoding format AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) has emerged and has become a popular music market with its higher sound quality and efficiency. The successor of MP3.
What is AAC?
AAC is an audio coding standard for lossy audio compression, designed to provide higher sound quality than MP3. At the same bit rate, AAC can generally provide better audio effects, which makes AAC the default audio file format on mobile devices and streaming media platforms. AAC has been standardized by ISO and IEC and has become part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications.
AAC supports up to 48 full-band audio channels.
Progress of AAC
Compared with MP3, AAC has many technical advantages. AAC supports sample rates from 8kHz to 96kHz and supports up to 48 audio channels. This gives AAC unparalleled flexibility in sound quality, especially when it comes to the demand for high-fidelity sound quality, AAC is even more powerful.
Why switch to AAC?
Although MP3 support is almost ubiquitous, AAC is gaining popularity due to its higher sound quality and compatibility with different devices. From iPhone to PlayStation, AAC powers many well-known devices. This seamless compatibility means consumers can enjoy a high-quality music experience no matter what device they use.
History of AAC
Since Nasir Ahmed proposed the discrete cosine transform (DCT) in 1972, audio coding technology has continued to evolve. By 1997, MPEG-2 Part 7 officially launched the AAC standard. The development of AAC is the result of cooperation between several well-known companies, including Dolby Labs and Fraunhofer IIS. The standardization of AAC not only includes the improvement of sound quality, but also covers compression efficiency and various functional expansions.
AAC has virtually changed the digital music listening experience.
Comparison of AAC and MP3
AAC uses pure modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) for encoding, which makes AAC surpass MP3's hybrid encoding method in terms of encoding efficiency. AAC can store more audio data in a smaller file size. Especially at low bit rates, AAC provides better sound quality performance. Improvements in AAC not only improve sound quality but also reduce the bandwidth required for data storage and transmission.
Applications of AAC today
AAC is not only a representative of music file format, but also widely used in fields such as broadcasting, streaming media and mobile phone calls. Due to AAC's excellent compression efficiency and sound quality, many music platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify have chosen to use AAC as their default audio encoding format.
In the world of streaming and wireless broadcasting, AAC has become the standard.
The future of AAC
With the advancement of technology, AAC continues to evolve and launch many new versions, such as HE-AAC and xHE-AAC, which can still maintain high-quality audio in low bitrate environments. The continued development of AAC adapts to the changing needs of today's music industry and may also lead the trend of future music formats.
How will digital music develop in the future, and how will the new generation of audio encoding technology affect our listening experience?
