WMA vs. MP3

Making the comparison

With only a handful of audio compression formats available, there are two that still garner most of the attention. WMA also known as Windows Media Audio and MP3 which is short for MPEG/Moving Pictures Experts Group Audio Layer 3.  The WMA format of the two has been in existence longer then the MP3 format and was developed by Microsoft to be used and played with the Windows Media Player.

What makes the WMA format much different from the MP3 is the ability for files to be DRM (Digital Rights Management) which is encoded in the files and is quite popular with in the music and film industries.  As this being the case WMA still has not over come the overly popular MP3 format which is used almost exclusively in today’s world. 

If you’re wondering which format can produce the most clarity, the overall consensus would be a split decision.  As some would argue that MP3 file formats produce higher quality sound, once the human ear is given a chance to hear the two formats the quality becomes quite noticeable depending on a couple of factors.  The headphones used, the ear that is listening, and the compression size.

Although I myself would claim an MP3 produces much higher CD like audio quality, WMA formats can also produce very high audio quality at smaller file sizes.  The debate still exists that if you set both WMA and MP3 at the same streaming level the WMA has the ability to remove distortion that can be heard in an MP3.  If you increase the size of the MP3 I find the quality to be much higher even though the file size is slightly larger.  The only place to be cautious with and MP3 is when using low bit rates as the quality can much lower and undesirable.

The Mp3 format provides a higher quality sound because of its audio coding that compresses it to CD quality sound.  Although the argument can be made on both sides, WMA formats will always be flying under because of the extreme popularity of the MP3, used by most in today’s world of music.

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