Audio Compression Comparison MP3 Vs. WMA
Uncompressed audio files are encoded to the .WAV format technology by standard. These files are large and cumbersome in file size. Various forms of audio compression exist to reduce the file size while attempting to maintain the audio quality of the uncompressed formats. MP3 is now the most common audio encoding format, and it's the industry standard for most portable audio players. WMA was created by Microsoft for use with its Windows Media Player audio library software.
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Windows Media Audio
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Windows Media Audio (WMA) was created to form competition against MP3 and other audio codecs. Like much software owned by Microsoft, it was first developed independently and then introduced to Microsoft. The codec was first programmed and developed by Henrique Malvar, with original claims that file sizes would be half of that achieved by MP3 technology. The software has seen many revisions since its introduction in the late 1990s.
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3
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MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) is the de facto standard audio codec for lossy audio compression. It was first developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group in the early 1990s. It compresses audio by reducing certain frequency accuracies that are considered inaudible on most sound systems by the average person. Its compression technique is similar to image compression used by JPEG files.
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Sound Quality Comparisons
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The sound quality comparisons between MP3 and WMA are subjective and much debated by audiophiles. MP3-Tech designed and completed a number of side-by-side comparison tests to compare audio quality in playback. It is generally recognized that in lower bitrates, WMA offers better compression and sound quality. At higher bitrates, MP3 is recognized to offer better sound quality than the WMA counterparts. WMA is a newer technology and so compression methods are more advanced. MP3 is much more customizable however, and so with the usage of further parameters, pass rates and resampling techniques, different file sizes and compression qualities can be achieved.
Microsoft File Size Claims
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Microsoft initially claimed that WMA offered half the file size of MP3; this was much debated and criticized amongst audiophiles and other technology companies. File sizes vary depending on the bit rate of your audio compression.
MP3 VBR
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MP3 in its basic form will use a Constant Bit Rate (CBR); however, it can also encode using a Variable Bit Rate (VBR). VBR works by encoding audio to the highest bitrate that it requires, depending on set VBR rate. VBR results in smaller file sizes than CBR.
Operating System Support
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The MP3 audio codec is fully supported by Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Unix, Palm OS and Symbian OS. The WMA audio codec is only fully supported by Windows, Mac OS X, Palm OS and Symbian OS.
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References
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