XLD is app on Mac OS X that uses CoreAudio to encode AAC. Basically that’s what iTunes was using.
My parameter for XLD was:
True VBR
Encoder quality: Max
Target quality: ~111
Resulted bitrate is around 256kbps, sometimes over 300kbps
Nero 1.3.3.0 was used for my older encodings
And I used Foobar2000 to encode and choose the best settings I could. And resulted in ~200kbps file.
What does this mean?
I know eventually for SQ we need listen test. But these graph suggest dramatic improvement of compression? Or not.
If it is indeed improvement, I probably have to ditch all my nero encoded files…And redo all the rip and such. Painful!