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Remember that MP3 doesn't define how to compress digital sound, only how to decompress it. Lots of different MP3 streams may decompress to curve forms that reasonably well matches the original sound, as well as resemble each other. Which one of the alternatives is the "best"?
While the MP3 patents for decoding expired many years ago, the smart tricks for determining which are the best way of encoding are getting better all the time, even today, and some of it is covered by patents that do not expire for another few years. The LAME encoder is frequently pointed out as an example: The first releases had rotten quality (the sound quality - it became popular due to its "free" quality  ), but as it caught the attention of some true experts, it gradually improved to become one of the fines encoders around. So the sound quality obtained with encoders of today is significantly better than from a 10 or 20 years old encoder, at a given bit rate.
All decoders are equal. The unpacking is deterministic and well defined, and has not changed over time. All decoders deliver the same sound quality. It is the encoder that matters. That also go for newer formats such as the AAC family.
The AAC family is built on the same basic principles as MP3, and the encoding format has been gradually expanded as more experience is gained (so an old, "simpler" AAC file can be played with an AAC decoder for a new format. Obviously, if you have a brand new encoder and enable all the newest features, the files you generate may not be playable everywhere, or possibly with reduced quality - e.g. if your player doesn't support parametric stereo (but your file uses it), you get mono sound. If it doesn't support SBR (but your file uses it), you won't get much sound above 7 kHz from your speakers.
I suggest that you try the most recent version, called "xHE-AAC" - you can go to really low bit rates while maintaing an impressingly high sound quality. The problem is that you won't find very many players for xHE-AAC (it is used in DRM radio, but I don't know if there are radio sets that will play files in the same sound format as they get over the air.)
For listening tests, I use the xHE-AAC encoder in "EZ CD Audio Converter" from Poikosoft[^] - an excellent ripper/converter. I encode a set of roughly 30 sound samples of different nature, decode them back to .wav files, and give the files names so you can't tell which variant is the original .wav, which is xHE-AAC@48kbs, which is MP3@96kbps (or other encodings/bitrates.
I have met many 'golden ear' MP3-bashers over the years, giving them a copy of the 30 samples each in 3 or 4 different encodings, all converted back to .wav, and an ABX program. An ABX program plays, in parallel, two sound files A and B with the same content. The listener can switch between A and B, and X which is randomly chosen as either A or B. After switching between the three, the listener should be able to tell if X is identical to A or identical to B, and indicates his decision by click the right button. X is randomly selected anew, playing continues and he can make another guess. After 20 such guesses, how many of them were correct? 10 correct answers is not impressing .
I have handed out at least 20 sets of such samples to golden ears guys. Not one of them has dared to let me see the logs from their ABX listening. Every one of them "needs more time" or they would rather like to test it on some better stereo system, or whatever excuse that you can read as "I did listen, but the program said that my guesses were little above pure random".
So, if you use a top notch modern encoder, and still claim that you can with reasonable certainty hear the difference between MP3@128kbps and MP3@320kbps (or original .wav), then I'd be really curious to see the logs from a double-blind ABX test! If you can do it, then you are better than all the golden ears MP3 bashers I have ever met!
Note: Every MP3 basher has known from childhood that castanets are not handled well by MP3. So they all have a single castanet sound file: They never listen to Spanish music at all, but that one castanet file is worth its weight in gold for a single purpose: to prove that MP3 Is Sh*t. If they cannot determine X reliably from my different samples, they can say: Try this one - it will prove that I am right! It doesn't work with AAC, AAC handles castanets well.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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There's another Chinese-manufactured product – joining the likes of TikTok, cars and semiconductors – that poses a national security risk to Americans: Electronic locks, such as those used in safes. Who needs to pick the locks when you've made them?
I just love this quote, "It would be one thing if these backdoors were only available to US government agencies, but they are not". Ah, priorities.
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But people don't learn...
If something is for free, you are the product.
Corolary: If something is for free, you are the Troy horse.
  
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Well, they do say that locks only keep honest people honest.
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Microsoft is once again injecting pop-ups into Google’s Chrome browser in a bid to get people to switch to Bing. Are you really, really, REALLY sure you don't want to try Bing?
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Injecting, as in 'injecting from the OS', or as 'putting popups on MS sites'? An entire article, and that simple point isn't clarified...  If it is from the OS, wouldn't that be a class actionable offense?
edit - it is the former - the linked article kinda addressed it... Wow! The hubris!
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Yeah, sorry. I should have used the Windows Latest[^] version of the story. They went into a bit more detail:
"In our tests, we noticed that this Bing pop-up isn’t part of a Windows update, and it is possibly linked to either BCILauncher.EXE or BingChatInstaller.EXE, which were added to some systems on March 13.
"Microsoft signs the two files, and you’ll find them inside the c:\windows\temp\mubstemp folder."
TTFN - Kent
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And Microsoft will surely allow Google to drop some signed files into the Windows folder, to do whatever they want. Right? Right?
/s
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Remember when Microsoft was kinda cool? Now they're acting like your aging drunk uncle Bill who can't get any attention anymore.
modified 18-Mar-24 8:32am.
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So - Google pops up everywhere. The only offender worse is Meta.
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Boiling down guidelines to one-sentence rules has drawbacks that make your code harder to understand. "By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well. That is one of the ends for which they exist."
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In Spain we say: "Learn all the rules, this way you will know which ones you might break"
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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A classic historic example: "Do no evil!"
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For those unfamiliar, Visual Studio App Center is a set of cloud tools and services that help developers create, test, distribute, monitor, and maintain applications on Windows, iOS, Android, and other platforms. I suspect that "for those unfamiliar" is quite the majority
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Is Microsoft getting inspiration from Google?
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, offers some thoughts on the artificial-intelligence-meets-biotech ‘supercycle’ we’re in today. Do we get to decide which one is the evil twin?
I know, I know: both
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Frederik Pohl already saw that in the 70s[^]
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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KB5035853 is a new update rolling out as part of the Windows 11 March 2024 Update, and it comes with some notable improvements. Meet the new KB, same as the old KB
I know it's hard for them to test across all the various combinations of hardware out there, but  (besides, isn't that what the various standards they've defined are designed to prevent?)
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Saving money, rather than innovation or modernization demands, is now the leading reason why organizations use open source software, according to OpenLogic's latest report. Cheaper, better, faster - pick one
At least I know which one management picks
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Kent Sharkey wrote: At least I know which one management picks
If you give them the possibility to choose 2 of them, they will probably try to get twice the same 
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Open source is generally cheaper up front but comes with significant maintenance costs that no one likes to talk about. For individuals or small businesses, this is probably ok but for large enterprises those maintenance costs get us the Equifax breach.
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Discover how Zod can help improve your code’s type safety, leading to better software and a smoother development experience. Code before ZOD!
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OpenAI's GPT-2 running locally in Microsoft Excel teaches the basics of how LLMs work. Never mind SkyNet, fear the VLOOKUP
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An impractical bragging-rights CPU tops Intel's 14th-gen desktop lineup. Fastest is not necessarily bestest
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