No I haven't, but these people have. Hydrogen Audio is the site I respect the most for the final word on the best sounding codecs. JStereo will most likely increase quality on a CBR file and lower the bitrate on an ABR/VBR mp3. Any lossy codec that gives you a choice between mid stereo (aka Joint Stereo) and regular stereo (except for non-LAME mp3 encoders) will benefit more from mid stereo.

I know. We all know. But he claims otherwise, so he's got to prove his claim.

I'll give it a try later I guess... but so far all my stereo mp3's seem so much more 'vibrant' than my joint stereo ones (same bitrates)... maybe its my personal preference.

Yup, personal preference.

Once you know how it works in LAME, you'll see that Joint Stereo is superior to "Stereo", period.

Why? Because "Stereo" uses only "Left/Right Stereo" frames, but "Joint Stereo" chooses between "Left/Right Stereo" and "Mid/Side Stereo" on a frame-by frame basis for the best quality.

Joint Stereo: The Myths And The Realities

Anyway, I urge you to do that blind test. Depending on how good your hearing is, you'll find that either a) you can't tell anything apart or b) that Joint Stereo is better.

I've tried finding programs to do this, but XA to WAV program that's on Zophar's Domain site doesn't work on this computer anymore. I've tried other programs, but they don't work either. Some even advertise XA to WAV conversation, but have no such function. I'm having no luck. Anybody have any ideas?

I do belive PsxMC can import XA files, it does work with most popular PS1 formats.

OK, so I know thsi is going to cause people to go OMG TRANSCODING but here goes:

I have some .ogg files that I want to transcode to mp3 for use in an mp3 player.

What settings/quality blah blah blah should I use in LAME to avoid making the files huge/not lose TOO much quality?

Anything at "-V 5" (don't forget to add the vbr new switch, which I conviently forgot the exact command to) or higher should be workable under most circumstances. It'd probably be best to use a similar preset to the bitrate the source Ogg is at, as not to waste space or lose too much quality.

I suppose just saying convert it to 128k would be too much to ask for LAME, wouldn't it.

:p

And I know how to do that, I'd just be using RazorLAME and an older version of LAME.

Yes, but VBR does a better job of determining what's the best quality. CBR (for bitrates below 320kbps) is pretty much useless, it wastes too much potential quality. If one wants to use 128kbps, then all you need to do is supply an input filename, LAME automatically uses 128 CBR as the default. If you want a stable bitrate and the best quality, ABR @ 128kbps is the best way to go.

I think, in the case of just converting it so you can use it in a DAP, quality isn't much of a concern. I mean, I transcode mp3s to 128k for use on my mp3, as a means of compression.

I'm fine with this, because these are just going to be for my mp3 player, and nothing else. And I don't care enough to look for the differences in quality.

He's not saying he's going to keep said transcoded files (unless you have to for whatever reason.)

128k should be fine, unless you're going to be using the files on the mp3 player for a specific purpose that requires them to be in a much higher quality than that.

I think recent versions of LAME use -V2 as the default.

[Edit]Oh, you're right. It does use 128kbps CBR by default.[/edit]

What are the differences between APS and APX VBR? I'm just wondering since I don't know what to encode my future rips in.

Really both will be indistinguishable in almost all cases (there might be a few cases where APX (aka -V 0) sounds better). If you don't keep lossless backups of your CDs, APX might be the way to go. If you don't really obsess about quality to the extent a select few do, then APS will sound transparent in 99.999% of all songs (especially if the words $100 and headphones never enter the same sentence when buying audio hardware).

Well the thing is, I will be backing up my VGM collection eventually and I am a quality-obsessed ripper. I've also seen #gamemp3s ripping most of their music in APS. That, and I kinda got the impression that APX files have a larger filesize than APS files do, though I can't be 100% sure on that.

If others were to burn my projects onto CDs I would go for APS then, eh? And thanks for the help.

Generally APS mp3s average between 190-210kbps and APX goes from 230-280kbps. The quality difference is not that great, especially compared to 128->192kbps. If you have large amounts of space, then go for APX, but if you backup to small mediums (like CD-R), using APS could mean the difference between having 8 full albums as opposed to 6.
Oh and use LAME 3.97b2 with -V 2 for better-than-LAME3.90.3-APS-quality. You'll get faster encodes and better quality in almost all cases. Personally I'd use -V 0 if you're obsessed with quality though, anything higher would be superflous and a waste of space. OR go with the compromise of -V 1 which is around 210kbps in most cases.

We had this extensive and well written hardware guide on the previous incarnation of the GFF - could anyone bring it back?

As soon as the GFF Archive starts working again, I could just hyperlink the guide. But with this crap, someone will have to supply us with a html copy of the thread.

Can somebody please tell me: What is the sampling rate for PSX XA audio files?

44.1kHz, I think. Though I very easily could be wrong.

I'd agree there. Try 44100Hz, if that doesn't work, 48000Hz or 37800Hz should do the trick. PsxMC should be able to correctly detect the sampling rates of said files.

I have a question.

How exactly do I rip music in VBR? I use Goldwave for my ripping needs and it always rips it at 128CBR. Do I need a better ripping program or is there some sort of settings I need to change on Goldwave?

Get a program called Exact Audio Copy. Goldwave is useless unless you like to rip in CBR. Anyway, the tutorial is all right here.

Whoops, I should have reworded that better. I meant, rip/record music from games. Whenever I rip music from games with Goldwave, it comes out in 128. How do I record music in VBR?