In-depth Comparison between M4A and MP3
Firstly, please bear in mind both Mpeg 3 audio (MP3) and Mpeg 4 audio (M4A) are audio compression formats, managed by Motion Pictures Experts Group. As their names suggest, MPEG 4 is newer than MP3. The follower is designed to replace the latter, with advantages like higher quality, low bitrates and file size, which is also alleged by many people. Does m4a sound better than mp3? Take a further look.
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1. Sound Quality Comparison: Sound quality is the top concern in M4A vs MP3 review. To be impartial, there are two cases you shall know. For M4A audio encoded with Apple lossless compression, none of the original signal is lost. Thus M4A delivers the best sound quality that other audio formats cannot catch up with, including the MP3. When it comes to M4A audio with AAC lossy compression, it renders much better at lower compressions. Tests show that an AAC M4A file stomps MP3 in the dirt in sound quality and transparency, at the same bit rate, particularly for the bit rate at or below 128 kbps. But with the increasing of bit rates, the advantages of M4A over MP3 is gradually unconspicuous, because more original sound signal is obtained. Specifically, some people firmly believe that M4A and MP3 are pretty much interchangeable with 256 M4A AAC = 320 MP3 quality more or less.
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2. File Size Comparison: With a little math and a little rounding in mind: File Size in MB = (Bitrate in kbps x Playing Time in minutes) / 140. M4A audio files with AAC lossy compression can be as small as 1/10 the size of the original file, while those with Apple Lossless compression are generally 50% smaller than the size of the original file. The two audio formats have the same size when encoded at the same bitrate. For instance, a 4 minute music at 128kbps M4A AAC is about 3.8MB in size. But you have to encode the song at around 192kbps, which will make the file larger than 3.8MB, in order to have the equal audio quality in MP3. So if space is a concern, AAC M4A is the winner in the fight.
2. File Size Comparison: With a little math and a little rounding in mind: File Size in MB = (Bitrate in kbps x Playing Time in minutes) / 140. M4A audio files with AAC lossy compression can be as small as 1/10 the size of the original file, while those with Apple Lossless compression are generally 50% smaller than the size of the original file. The two audio formats have the same size when encoded at the same bitrate. For instance, a 4 minute music at 128kbps M4A AAC is about 3.8MB in size. But you have to encode the song at around 192kbps, which will make the file larger than 3.8MB, in order to have the equal audio quality in MP3. So if space is a concern, AAC M4A is the winner in the fight.
Note: The size and sound quality are related to the bit rate which generally ranges from 96 to 320 Kbps. As the bit rate increases, the sound quality increases, so does the file size.
3. Industry Support Comparison: Despite MP3 is somewhat older than M4A, it has been the standard for digital music file for 24 years. Virtually any media player and device supports playing MP3. So far, it is still the most popular audio format for downloading. But if you start working on a new database, just go AAC M4A as most video/audio players support playing MPEG4 can recognize M4A file. Plus, industry support for M4A has been growing and major music hardware manufacturers already include AAC decoding on their devices. On top of that, AAC M4A is the default format for the hot gadgets, including iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, PlayStation 3 and more.
M4A and AAC are popular audio formats, especially on Apple devices, because they are supported by operating system and played well in iTunes. But what if you move to PC or your device does not support it? In that case you need to convert M4A files to MP3 format. And we recommend you to pay attention to our free audio conversion utility.
This guide has been written using the Mac version of the program, but the steps for Windows are the same
Add M4A file
Run MediaHuman Audio Converter and press highlighted plus button to add M4A songs you want to convert to MP3 format. Other way to do it is to drag'n'drop files or folders on the application's window.
Select MP3 format
Press highlighted Format button and select MP3 as an output format.
Pressing the arrow on the button will display recently used formats.
Best video converter app for mac. Once installed, it adds its option to the menu bar.
Set additional format settings
You can select among of predefined MP3 settings or set up your own by choosing Custom.
Start it
Now we are ready to start the conversion. Press the Convert button on the toolbar and wait until the conversion process finishes. Press it again if you want to stop the conversion.
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Done
Congratulations! With minimum time and efforts you have successfully converted your M4A/AAC files to MP3 format. You can locate converted file pressing the Locate button next to it.