Archive Comparison Test - by Jeff Gilchrist
October 7, 2002 Macintosh Edition


Sound (WAV) Compression Test

The specifications and configuration of the test computer can be found here.

The sound file test includes two files in WAV format:

The links to download these test files can be found here.

Legend
+ - New program tested
B - Best compression (smallest compressed file)
F - Fastest compression time
Q - Quickest extraction time
O - Best overall (smallest overall score - calculated by adding compress time, extract time, and time it would take to transfer the compressed file over a 28,800bps network)
+HQX - means that the test files were compressed and then BASE-64 encoded.
+TAR - means that the test files were stored together in one TAR file first and then compressed.
+UU - means that the test files were compressed and then UU encoded.

  ACT 2.0 Sound (WAV) Test              
  Total Files Size (bytes): 8,702,392            
  Name Switches

Compress
Time

Extract
Time

Compressed
Size

Overall
Score

Compress
Ratio

Bits per
Byte

     

(seconds)

(seconds)

(bytes)

(seconds)

(%)

(b/B)

B MacRAR 2.5b5 -m4 -mm -md1024 -s

68.54

7.71

6,172,632

1790.87

29.07

5.6744

  MacRAR 2.5b5 -m4 -mm -md1024

67.98

7.46

6,173,187

1790.21

29.06

5.6749

O MacRAR 2.5b5 -mm -md1024

67.69

7.59

6,173,188

1790.05

29.06

5.6749

  BZIP2 0.0b2+TAR 400k

35.80

21.95

7,624,542

2175.68

12.39

7.0091

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> BZIP+TAR (Fast)

30.34

9.33

7,633,721

2160.15

12.28

7.0176

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> BZIP+TAR (Max)

32.70

10.03

7,634,897

2163.53

12.27

7.0187

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> BZIP+TAR (Max)

35.42

15.51

7,638,124

2172.63

12.23

7.0216

  BZIP2 0.0b2+TAR 900k

36.91

22.28

7,643,933

2182.50

12.16

7.0270

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> SIT (Max)

43.34

31.82

7,649,679

2200.07

12.10

7.0323

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SITX (Med)

35.98

29.33

7,658,719

2192.73

11.99

7.0406

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> BZIP+TAR (Fast)

32.78

15.01

7,665,666

2177.14

11.91

7.0470

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SITX (Max)

38.76

30.07

7,674,502

2200.64

11.81

7.0551

+Q Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP (Max)

18.18

5.44

7,880,523

2212.65

9.44

7.2445

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> GZIP+TAR (Max)

21.42

5.84

7,880,799

2216.37

9.44

7.2447

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP (Max)

9.56

9.38

7,915,274

2217.63

9.04

7.2764

  PKZIP 2.03 (Max)

49.08

11.55

7,920,233

2260.69

8.99

7.2810

  MacGZIP 1.1 + TAR (Level 9)

12.56

10.07

7,920,835

2222.86

8.98

7.2815

  MacGZIP 1.1 + TAR (Level 6)

12.41

10.17

7,920,873

2222.82

8.98

7.2816

  ZIPIT 2.1 (Level 9)

13.72

6.45

7,921,603

2220.62

8.97

7.2822

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> SIT (Fast)

15.09

7.82

7,921,771

2223.40

8.97

7.2824

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> GZIP+TAR (Max)

15.63

9.10

7,922,202

2225.34

8.97

7.2828

  SmartZip 1.0.1 (none)

10.86

6.49

7,922,448

2218.03

8.96

7.2830

  PKZIP 2.03 (Normal)

33.51

11.68

7,923,510

2246.17

8.95

7.2840

  ZIPIT 2.1 (Level 5)

13.53

6.12

7,924,111

2220.79

8.94

7.2845

F Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP (Fast)

8.62

9.48

7,926,534

2219.92

8.92

7.2868

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP (Fast)

14.29

5.69

7,930,180

2222.81

8.87

7.2901

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SITX (Fast)

32.88

9.23

7,930,481

2245.02

8.87

7.2904

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> GZIP+TAR (Fast)

16.79

5.73

7,930,895

2225.55

8.87

7.2908

  PKZIP 2.03 (Fast)

25.57

11.73

7,934,669

2241.37

8.82

7.2942

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> LHA (Max)

21.21

9.29

7,936,422

2235.06

8.80

7.2959

  MacGZIP 1.1 + TAR (Level 1)

11.43

10.01

7,939,002

2226.72

8.77

7.2982

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.0 -> GZIP+TAR (Fast)

11.71

8.14

7,939,887

2225.37

8.76

7.2990

  ZIPIT 2.1 (Level 1)

11.16

6.10

7,939,513

2222.68

8.77

7.2987

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> GZIP+TAR (Fast)

14.60

9.00

7,940,196

2229.21

8.76

7.2993

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> LHA (Fast)

30.76

20.46

7,944,629

2258.06

8.71

7.3034

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> TAR (none)

6.30

3.90

8,704,512

2428.12

-0.02

8.0019

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> TAR (none)

2.99

2.34

8,705,024

2423.39

-0.03

8.0024

  MacTAR 4.2.1 (none)

2.82

2.84

8,714,240

2426.28

-0.14

8.0109

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> SIT+HQX (Max)

51.30

37.71

10,399,690

2977.81

-19.50

9.5603

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SIT+HQX (Max)

44.46

40.22

10,433,048

2982.75

-19.89

9.5910

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP+UU (Max)

22.09

14.49

10,857,641

3052.59

-24.77

9.9813

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP+UU (Max)

16.30

14.69

10,905,521

3060.30

-25.32

10.0253

                 
  Best Compression: MacRAR 2.5b5            
  Fastest Compression: Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP            
  Quickest Extraction: Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP            
  Best Overall: MacRAR 2.5b5            

 

Legend
+ - New program tested
B - Best compression (smallest compressed file)
F - Fastest compression time
Q - Quickest extraction time
O - Best overall (smallest overall score - calculated by adding compress time, extract time, and time it would take to transfer the compressed file over a 28,800bps network)
+HQX - means that the test files were compressed and then BASE-64 encoded.
+TAR - means that the test files were stored together in one TAR file first and then compressed.
+UU - means that the test files were compressed and then UU encoded.

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