Author Topic: FLAC rip vs. conversion from...?  (Read 514 times)

Música

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Two conversion questions, please:

I have a lot of files in WMA lossless that I have considered converting to FLAC. For music I own, that I could re-rip, is the fresh rip going to end in a superior file, not, or is this a complicated/depends-on question?

Second Q, that I hesitated to ask: for files that I have converted from either lossless format to 320Kps MP3, is re-conversion to lossless possible or did compression lose whatever detail I had? Feels like a dumb question, but it's something else I've only assumed.

All my FLAC ripping has been in MB (on a Win 7 system), as all conversion has been and would be.

Thank you.

phred

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I have a lot of files in WMA lossless that I have considered converting to FLAC. For music I own, that I could re-rip, is the fresh rip going to end in a superior file, not, or is this a complicated/depends-on question?
My understanding is that lossless is lossless. The downside to keeping/using WMA is the lack of decent tagging.

Quote
Second Q, that I hesitated to ask: for files that I have converted from either lossless format to 320Kps MP3, is re-conversion to lossless possible or did compression lose whatever detail I had? Feels like a dumb question, but it's something else I've only assumed.
Converting an MP3 to -any-thing will cause a degradation in sound. Even converting a 320 to a 320. Whether or not you can hear the difference depends on your equipment and your hearing. I'm not an audiophile and can't hear the difference between a FLAC and 320kps MP3. But I can hear the difference between a 320 and a 96.
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sveakul

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Converting an MP3 to -any-thing will cause a degradation in sound.

Just to clarify for Música: converting a MP3 to a lossless format like FLAC will not degrade the sound of the source MP3, but it will never make it sound BETTER than the source MP3 or restore its previous detail when it was lossless.  It will just make the file size a whole lot bigger.

phred

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Just to clarify for Música: converting a MP3 to a lossless format like FLAC will not degrade the sound of the source MP3, but it will never make it sound BETTER than the source MP3 or restore its previous detail when it was lossless.
Yes. Stated better than I did. Thanks.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
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vincent kars

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Quote
WMA lossless that I have considered converting to FLAC.
I have done so.
I have done part of the ripping in WMP and at that time one could choose between WAV or WMAL being the only 2 lossless formats supported.
As the tagging support for WAV was very poor at that time, I choose WMAL has it has excellent tagging support.
As I quit using WMP years ago and WMAL has become a bit of a marginal codec, one day I simply converted them to FLAC.
As both are lossless formats, you can safely do so without loss.