Perceptual quality of audio is the combination of aural accuracy and listener-perceived sound fidelity. It is how humans respond to the accuracy, intelligibility, and fidelity of aural media. Today this fidelity is also heavily influenced by the use of audio compression codecs for storing aural media in digital form. We argue that, when choosing an audio compression codec, users should not only look at compression efficiency but also consider the sonic perceptual quality properties of available audio compression codecs. We evaluate several commonly used audio compression codecs in terms of compression performance as well as their sonic perceptual quality via codec performance measurements, visualizations, and PEAQ scores. We demonstrate how perceptual quality is affected by digital audio compression techniques, providing insights for users in the process of choosing a digital audio compression scheme.

翻译：音频的感知质量是听觉准确性与听者感知到的声音保真度的结合。它反映了人类对听觉媒体在准确性、清晰度和保真度方面的响应。如今，这种保真度还受到用于以数字形式存储听觉媒体的音频压缩编解码器的显著影响。我们认为，在选择音频压缩编解码器时，用户不仅应关注压缩效率，还应考虑可用音频压缩编解码器的声音感知质量特性。我们通过编解码器性能测量、可视化分析和PEAQ评分，评估了多种常用音频压缩编解码器的压缩性能及其声音感知质量。我们展示了数字音频压缩技术如何影响感知质量，为选择数字音频压缩方案的用户提供参考。