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[zevele10]

First i really do not think this program is of any help.
The criteria is only the number of kp not the software used to convert.
If you have Lame 192 kps VRB at the best setting,the songs under 110 are in 'bad'.

But there is more:a cds to 192 CBR mp3 with Easycd Creator gets MORE THAN ONE encoder in the results.
The same cd VBR 192 with EAC/Lame ,the same!
Now ,the ice on the cake.
If yourun EncSpot 1 or EncSpot 2,you do not get the same results!
Now,the cherry on the ice on the cake:
For VRB ,you do not get the same Kp numbers for the same song with 1  than with 2!

And so many  people use it as a kind of Bible to know if they MP3 are good!!!..................

[zevele10]

No comment?

[Ce.D]

I tried this EncSpot once. Well... nice bar graphs, plenty of numeric figures, and so on... but frankly, do many people understand how those figures are related to "sound quality" ? Personally, I don't (or rather, I never tried, though I know a bit about "wavelets") !

I used to work in an image compression algorithm's development lab. From what I recall, a genuine estimation of encoding quality requires a comparison with the original uncompressed data. And then comes the question of how you compare. Quadratic error in the temporal domain ? Doesn't work, since most sound compression algorithms alter the phase of the signal... Quadratic error in the frequency domain ? Rude... Psyschoacoustic model ? We haven't managed so far to know exactly how the ear works...

And speaking of "wavelet" based compression algorithm and high-frequency factors reduction: OK, average people can't hear anything above 16-18kHz... but experiments tend to prove that though we can't hear frequencies above, our sensibility to transients IS altered when supressing those frequencies. Classical instruments (such as violin, harpsichord, ...) sound's signature depends a lot on those transients. So what are very good encoding settings for some modern electro music can actually be absolut horrible settings for classical music...

My electro-acoustic's teacher used to say: "How does it SOUND to YOU ?!?" (this guy was no "greenhorn", he designed one of Switzerland's best-sounding symphony hall...). Personally, I ain't got a good ear... thus I never managed to hear differences on files encoded with higher settings than LAME's "--alt-preset standard". Happy me, I guess...

ERRATA:
I mentionned "wavelets" in this post. Well, actually, I should have spoken of "subband coding" :-)