A method for optimizing performance of Advanced Audio Coding of an audio source sequence, the Advanced Audio Coding being dependent on a quantized spectral coefficient sequence, on a scale factor sequence, and on Huffman codebooks, wherein the quantized spectral coefficient sequence is a quantized sequence of the audio source sequence, the scale factor sequence corresponds to quantization step sizes of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, and the Huffman codebooks are from a set of selectable Huffman codebooks, the method comprising: determining (56, 58) values of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize a cost function of an encoding of the audio source sequence within a predetermined threshold, the cost function being dependent on the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and performing Advanced Audio Coding of the audio source sequence using the determined quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the determined scale factor sequence, and the determined Huffman codebooks; wherein said determining includes initializing fixed values of one of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and iteratively performing: determining, for the fixed values of the one of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks, values of the other two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize the cost function, determining, for one of the determined values of the other two, values of the remaining two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize the cost function, and fixing the determined values of the remaining two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and determining whether the cost function is within a predetermined threshold, and if so ending the iteratively performing. determining (56, 58) values of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize a cost function of an encoding of the audio source sequence within a predetermined threshold, the cost function being dependent on the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and performing Advanced Audio Coding of the audio source sequence using the determined quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the determined scale factor sequence, and the determined Huffman codebooks; wherein said determining includes initializing fixed values of one of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and iteratively performing: determining, for the fixed values of the one of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks, values of the other two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize the cost function, determining, for one of the determined values of the other two, values of the remaining two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize the cost function, and fixing the determined values of the remaining two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and determining whether the cost function is within a predetermined threshold, and if so ending the iteratively performing. determining, for the fixed values of the one of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks, values of the other two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize the cost function, determining, for one of the determined values of the other two, values of the remaining two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks which minimize the cost function, and fixing the determined values of the remaining two of the quantized spectral coefficient sequence, the scale factor sequence, and the Huffman codebooks; and determining whether the cost function is within a predetermined threshold, and if so ending the iteratively performing.