stereo loss after converting from wav to ac3

[Driber]

When I convert a wav file (stereo, 48000 Hz, 16 bit) to ac3 (stereo, 48000 Hz, 192 kbps) I can hear a significant loss in stereo effect.

The ac3 sounds more "narrow" and "dull" compared to the original.

I have used eac3to and besweet for ac3 encoding, both with the same result.

When I convert the wav to mp3 @ 192 kpbs (using CDex), there is no loss of stereo effect and it sounds as perfect as the original.

Can someone tell me if I am doing something wrong here or if this is a known limitation of ac3?

[AlanHK]

Try Aften.

[Driber]

I've tried it. Same problem.

[raquete]

same problem with Aften?!?
have something wrong...
post your command line!

[Driber]

I used AftenGUI. The only setting I changed was the bitrate, I've set it to 192.

[raquete]

download EncWAVtoAC3-4.1 with Aften R832 here: http://rapidshare.com/files/276363037/EncWAVtoAC3-4.1_Af_R832.rar.
just unrar and run...

important:
adjust Maximum Bandwidth 50, load your source, adjust bitrate to 192 and tell us about the quality of the result.

[Driber]

ok, thanks everyone for your posts, I have figured out what the problem is

the ac3 is just fine after all, it was the player that made it sound mono: Media Player Classic

when I first encountered this problem, I though that it could be the fault of the player, so I played the ac3 in a different player and it sounded exactly the same: mono-ish

but just now I downloaded yet another player and the ac3 sounded perfectly stereo, so the conclusion must be that the players I tried so far are to blame

I went into the options of MPC, then to Internal Filters and checked the box "AC3" under "Transform Filters", restarted MPC and voila, the ac3 sounds way better

it's mind boggling that the default settings of MPC makes the audio sound inferior

[guns1inger]

The sweet spot for AC3 Stereo is 256kbps, so compressing down to 192kbps will noticeably decrease the quality of a good source.

[Driber]

It's not a good source, it's an old home video, so 192 kbps will be more than enough. I hear no difference between the ac3 and the wav source on quality headphones, so it's surely not going to make any difference hearing the audio on a TV.

But thank you for your input