Carl Blare

One discussion I don’t recall seeing here is that about audiofile formats. Now might be the right time to begin what could be an ongoing discussion over the next few months, based on “news to me” heard on THIS WEEK in RADIO TECH, with guest radio engineer Greg Ogonowski who specializes in streaming formats for everything from radio station delivery feeds to streaming radio stations over cell phones, iTunes and everything else. According to him, the format known as HE-AAC has come to be the best of the best for high audio quality in a low size package.

This link is a good starting point to learn about HE-AAC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEAAC

Here at KDX we record in WAV, 22.05kHz, mono for our permanent master copy, convert to 56kbps, 22.05kHz MP3 for streaming, and stream at 24kbps, 22,05kHz, mono and 16kbps, 11.025kHz, mono over the internet. The MP3 stream is fed to FM 107.1 and AM 1550, and is better than AM wide-band to this listener’s ear, almost as good as the best mono FM. It is a sound intended for small loudspeakers in table and portable radios.

But having heard this latest news we are starting to investigate AAC, the format upon which HE-AAC is built, and wonder what audiofile experiences or thoughts you might have?