m4a vs. mp3?

[mj555]

Is m4a higher quality or something? What's the difference?

[JoshuaD]

Different encoding algorithm.

I'm pretty sure m4a has slower scrolling, and MP3's have been optimized to ****, so it's gonna be hard to outperform them.

[fluxrad]

Both formats are lossy. m4a is the next iteration of the mpeg layer standards, mpeg layer 4.

You can find more information here.

So yes: m4a > mp3

Edit: Looks like a lot of other sites assert that mp3 and m4a are roughly the same quality, or that m4a is slightly worse. Personally, I'd stick with mp3.

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

I don't understand the whole lossless movement except maybe for the argument that you can scale down but never up. Regardless, 95% of people don't need lossless.

Just use .mp3. Not that it makes much difference at all.

[Phil153]

There's [censored] all difference. They claim better compression and sound quality but amongst the tech community that's considered nonsense. Google it.

I purchase music through iTunes and I can't see any difference for most songs except slower decoding times. With electronic dance musicthe difference is more noticable, the 128kbps m4p file is pwned by 160kbps mp3.