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The original was posted on /r/audiophile by /u/KRowland08 on 2023-08-09 02:50:18+00:00.

Without debating the qualities of various lossy codec formats, I want to examine the importance of the Encoder and Decoder software used. When we stream music from our various sources, we cannot control what program software was used to make the compressed file. We do choose what device we use to decode the stream and produce PCM data to our DAC / AVR.

My inquiry is, does anyone test the various encoders / decoders used today. For example, how good is an AAC file from Apple VS You Tube Music? What encoder is used, how good is it? Realizing we really can’t do anything about it, has someone made some determinations on encoder quality from various streaming services?

But the decoder is the one we can choose to use. For example, when you use an app to play a stream, where is the file decoded and how good is it. When I listen to a selection in Apple Music it would use one decoder, but if I cast it to the Google Chromecast Audio, then the CC device decodes the stream and provides PCM to the playback device, or DAC, of which that is another discussion.

Do we worry about how good the encoders are at the service and how good the decoders are in our systems? We discuss DACs until we’re exhausted, but do we care about the stream decoders?

In my universe, I can play my You Tube Music Premium AAC 256k on my desktop, thereby using the Safari browser to play the song out my USB interface to the DAC. I assume the AAC is converted to PCM in the browser? Then uncompressed PCM is sent to an external USB DAC device.

Or I can listen via the YTM IOS app to headphones and am using a different decoder, somewhere built into the app or IOS? Is it YouTube’s decoder or Apple’s decoder?

Thirdly, I can cast from my iPhone YTM app to a Chromecast Audio device (as mentioned above) into my main stereo receiver digital input and have yet another decoder device.

Should I care how good the decoder is, are they all relatively the same, as they don’t really do anything complex like the encoders do. Are the decoders in these 3 scenarios, relatively the same quality?

If there has been a discussion on this here or on a website, please point me to it. Thank you all and happy listening.