[djkoolaide]

I'm interested in knowing more, but after a few minutes of searching, I can't seem to find a modern macOS implementation of the reference Fraunhofer codec. All my tools (Audition, xACT, ffmpeg, and even dbpoweramp) use various versions of LAME. Does Fraunhofer's encoder preserve above 20kHz at 320kbps?

[mannyv]

Apparently Music uses it...or at least it used to.

https://podcastengineeringschool.com/itunes-uses-fraunhofer/

[astrange]

iTunes' MP3 encoder is awful, so that's not a good sign.

It's iTunes' AAC encoder that's good.

[mannyv]

As an aside, the docs attached to the repo referenced above has the first good explanation of "joint stereo" I've ever seen. I remember seeing the "joint stereo" button on the first encoders, and nobody ever said what that actually did.

[mannyv]

Haven't encoded anything with iTunes/Music's mp3 encoder in years, ever since AAC came out.

What's amusing is that speakers may have been optimizing themselves for LAME, since it's pretty much the dominant encoder.