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64 kbps stream?
Is it true that some listeners' Pandora stations are now streamed at 64kbps? Isn't that lower quality?
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Yes, that's true, select listeners have been switched over, but you shouldn't hear a noticeable difference in quality. Please read on for an explanation:
For Pandora on the Web and Pandora in the Home, our music streams are
based on mp3 and AAC+, comparable in fidelity to all high-end Internet
radio services. Most experts concur that properly tuned AAC+ is at
least as good as mp3 at twice the bit rate. Our bitrate strikes a good
balance between full, rich sound quality, and the bandwidth required for
each listener to use Pandora.
Pandora is now streaming at 64kbps to listeners with the latest version of Flash-- but just looking at the numbers is apples to oranges since the new audio format is AAC+, which makes more efficient use of bandwidth than mp3 does.
To wildly oversimplify, mp3 has 'reserved' frequency layers (say, treble, mid and bass) so even if there's no mid and bass at all in a given section of an mp3 track, the treble still only gets the same amount of bandwidth it would at any other time.
AAC+, on the other hand, has the ability to use all its available bandwidth for whatever frequency layers are in use-- so in that same example, all 64kbps of the AAC+ file might be dedicated to the treble layers in that section of the track and sound much better than 128kpbs mp3.
In tests performed by the Listener Support team (some knew what had changed when listening, while others were listening 'blind'), using high-end headphones, none of us could hear any difference between the 128kpbs mp3 and the 64kbps AAC+.
If you have any questions or problems related to this issue, please do email pandora-support@pandora.com and our Support Team will be happy to help.
Thanks!
Lucia, from Pandora
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Inappropriate?Yes, that's true, select listeners have been switched over, but you shouldn't hear a noticeable difference in quality. Please read on for an explanation:
For Pandora on the Web and Pandora in the Home, our music streams are
based on mp3 and AAC+, comparable in fidelity to all high-end Internet
radio services. Most experts concur that properly tuned AAC+ is at
least as good as mp3 at twice the bit rate. Our bitrate strikes a good
balance between full, rich sound quality, and the bandwidth required for
each listener to use Pandora.
Pandora is now streaming at 64kbps to listeners with the latest version of Flash-- but just looking at the numbers is apples to oranges since the new audio format is AAC+, which makes more efficient use of bandwidth than mp3 does.
To wildly oversimplify, mp3 has 'reserved' frequency layers (say, treble, mid and bass) so even if there's no mid and bass at all in a given section of an mp3 track, the treble still only gets the same amount of bandwidth it would at any other time.
AAC+, on the other hand, has the ability to use all its available bandwidth for whatever frequency layers are in use-- so in that same example, all 64kbps of the AAC+ file might be dedicated to the treble layers in that section of the track and sound much better than 128kpbs mp3.
In tests performed by the Listener Support team (some knew what had changed when listening, while others were listening 'blind'), using high-end headphones, none of us could hear any difference between the 128kpbs mp3 and the 64kbps AAC+.
If you have any questions or problems related to this issue, please do email pandora-support@pandora.com and our Support Team will be happy to help.
Thanks!
Lucia, from Pandora
I’m confident
The company says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?What high-end headphone was used? What songs were used for the testing? Were the listeners familiar with the songs beforehand? What was the source hardware of the audio and did you use a headphone amplifier?
These things make a massive difference in A-B testing of audio quality. As far as showing that people cannot tell the difference, you have said nothing on the matter until you can provide these details.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?Hi Shaddix -
You're right, all of your points affect questions of testing and audio quality. Of course, listening is subjective; there are no absolutes. Here's a bit more on the issue.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HE-AAC
"Testing indicates that material decoded from 64 kbit/s HE-AAC does not yet have similar audio quality to material decoded from MP3 at 128 kbit/s using high quality encoders. The test, taking bitrate distribution and RMSD into account, is a tie between MP3pro, HE AAC and the open-source Ogg Vorbis."
Also from that source, "Scientific testing by the European Broadcasting Union has indicated that HE-AAC at 48 kbit/s was ranked as "Excellent" quality using the MUSHRA scale."
This test http://www.rjamorim.com/test/64test/r... (which is the one cited on Wikipedia) seems to be quite thorough, so feel free to have a look over there.
All this aside, if you'd like to subscribe to Pandora for $3 a month, we can serve you up 128kbps mp3.
For more info, feel free to email our Support Team at pandora-support@pandora.com
Thanks,
Lucia -
Inappropriate?I definitely think the service is worth paying for, and I certainly would if there was at least a 256kbps option of any major encoder available.
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This answers the question
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Sorry, we can't stream at 256 at this point. Thanks for your feedback! - Lucia
