Vorbis.com - Open, Free Audio
by Volker Weber
A funny thing about demo pages; about a year ago when Microsoft put up a demo page trumpeting how the newly released WMA 8 beat Real 8 in 64kbps quality, they included a number of samples purportedly demonstrating that WMA was now clearly superior. I read the page at that time, shook my head and thought to myself, "Poor Real. Microsoft finally caught them." I didn't even listen to the samples, but I left the page with a clear idea in my head that WMA 8 really was better than Real.
Odd thing, though; a few months later I finally listened to those demo samples side by side... and was actually surprised to find that Real was clearly superior in every featured demo comparison. It wasn't even really close, and these were samples hand picked by Microsoft to show off WMA.
The slick page had suckered me-- ME-- of all people, and I obviously like to think I'm smarter than that.
So, I beg you, gentle visitor, to listen to the below comparisons and not just take my word that Ogg Vorbis 1.0 wins the comparison. Put on some good headphones, let the cat out and have some fun with it.
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