A method and a device for arithmetic encoding of a current spectral coefficient using preceding spectral coefficients. The method comprises processing the preceding spectral coefficients, using the processed preceding spectral coefficients for determining a context class being one of at least two different context classes, using the determined context class and a mapping from the at least two different context classes to at least two different probability density functions for determining the probability density function, and arithmetic encoding the current spectral coefficient based on the determined probability density function wherein processing the preceding spectral coefficients comprises non-uniformly quantizing absolutes of the preceding spectral coefficients for use in determining of the context class.