AAC Bit Rate

[Berth]

I would like to know that what is the optimal Bit Rate which can be used to record maintaining an ideal balance of quality and storage space. This is in terms of AAC format. How exactly do MP3 and AAC bitrate can be compare in terms of quality? Any one knows about it? Let me know the actual differences between the two.

[Macarenas]

To get suitable audio quality, you must use an appropriate compression rate for the audio files you encode with iTunes. I have an iPod and rip at 192kbps AAC, however the best answer would be to try different rates and choose the lowest rate that you can't hear a significant difference by moving to a higher rate.

[kattman]

iTunes’ default settings are to encode AAC files in stereo at the 128 Kbps bitrate using automatic sample-rate detection. From this analysis, a 160 kbps AAC file is similar in quality to a 192 kbps VBR MP3 file (with the AAC file weighing in at less than 90% of the equivalent MP3 file size) and that does seem to support Apple's claims about AAC quality.

[ThoMas321]

Generally, it all depends on you. These are different codecs and will have different results on differnt kinds of music. Most people agree that AAC at a given bitrate is better than mp3 at the same. If they don’t suit you, you can choose custom AAC settings for the files you create. With AAC you can change the bitrate, the sample rate, and the channels.