If you use Spek spectral analysis, you will see that the top frequencies are cut off as low as 14k, 15k, 16k in some cases, which younger listeners may notice. Other high quality options are the native Apple AAC encoder.īoth aac and libfdk_aac codecs try to be adaptive about the top frequency range, but this can be controlled. If you have a preference for HE-AACv1, HE-AACv2 and have access to objective data that proves FDK is better quality, then use FDK. If you have a need to use AAC, use FFmpeg's native aac codec as it is included in almost any build of FFmpeg. While FFmpeg's native aac was in the experimental stage, it was accepted by the developers that it was of a lower quality, but there have been many improvements from the early experimental releases.

(The FFmpeg wiki is not objective data, it is a subjective opinion of the author of the wiki). I just don't have any objective data to show whether FFmpeg's native aac is equal to or lower than the quality of Fraunhofer's libfdk_aac. That said, Fraunhofer are a highly respected organization and have huge experience with AAC. My trust in the subjective opinion of audiophiles on forums is minimal because of 'I can hear the difference in my low-oxygen, gold cables etc'. Libfdk_aac is considered by some to be higher quality, but I have not seen any objective head-to-head data. FFmpeg's native aac supports AAC-LC profile. Libfdk_aac has the advantage of supporting AAC-LC, HE-AACv1 and HE-AACv2 profiles. It was painful to install (and Fraunhofer were well within their rights to license their intellectual property as they see fit - they were good enough to make it open source).Ībout 4-ish years ago, FFmpeg's native aac came out of experimental and is now considered mainstream.

However, although libfdk_aac was open source, it had license complexities which caused issues for redistributable binaries. But there is far less need to use libfdk_aac these days now that FFmpeg's native aac codec is released. So, examples get copied, people build habits and libfdk_aac is very prevalent in public-domain examples. Therefore, most examples referenced libfdk_aac, because it was the only high fidelity option available. Why is there a lot of libfdk_aacs in Google Search?įor many years, the native aac encoder was experimental, so libfdk_aac was the only option.

Xmedia recode aac vs fdk aac