We set up a computer with a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Value and a Pioneer DR-A10X CD-ROM for testing purposes. The Live Value was used since it has, for it's price, exceptional clarity of sound. To the extent of our experience other cards will be almost as good except for a slightly increased level of noise. The Pioneer CD-ROM is very good at "ripping" or grabbing audio data from a CD-ROM without any digital to analogue conversion, thereby not losing any audio information. Note that Plextor is considered to make the best drives for audio extraction followed closely by Pioneer.

Now all this hardware would do nothing without the encoding and ripping software.
 

• Xing Technologies Audio Catalyst 2 (MP3)  • Iomega RecordIt (MP2) • Real Networks Real Authoring Kit    (Real Audio) • Microsoft MS Audio Toolkit      (Microsoft Audio 4) • Yamaha TwinVQ Encoder (VQF)

Audio Catalyst with its audio extraction setup screen

Audio Catalyst was used for the audio extraction for the other programs though RecordIt directly encoded to MP2. Except for Audio Catalyst, the other programs are freely downloadable. Some of these formats, most notably MP3, have many more software solutions with different audiences in mind. I have stayed away from database based archiving software for our convenience (and also the fact that I do not like them) but the results should be the same.

Two speakers and one headphone were used as well.

• • Nakamichi SP-3D (basic sub-woofer setup with very good stereo imaging)
• • Cambridge Soundworks FPS 2000 four point (surround capable and semi-high quality level)
• • Sennheiser HD 433 (cost effective headphones for both normal and high quality)

The other important part of comparing compression formats is the selection of sample music. Let's see what we used. 
 
 

Table of contents
Introduction	TwinVQ (VQF)
Basics of audio compression	Real Audio G2
Methods of comparison	Microsoft Audio 4
Software and hardware	MPEG 1 layer 2 (MP2)
Selection of music for the comparison	MPEG 1 layer 3 (MP3)
Index of results	Conclusion