Please don't stop the music

Discussion in 'Software' started by zxspectrum, Jun 3, 2016.

  1. zxspectrum

    zxspectrum Terabyte Poster Forum Leader Gold Member

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    Hope you like what I did there.

    Anyway quick question regarding MP3s, after a bit of reading I found out the WAV files sound better than MP3's because you lose some of the quality, so I was just wondering if anyone has converted and MP3 to WAV and noticed a difference?

    Ed
     
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  2. BB88

    BB88 Kilobyte Poster Gold Member

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    An original .WAV file will be completely uncompressed and lossless. .FLAC is compressed and lossless. .MP3 is compressed and loses audio quality through constant bit rate (CBR) or variable bit rate (VBR)

    Transcoding from .MP3 to .WAV won't yield good results and will take up more space on your hard drive.

    I used to rip my CDs to .FLAC for both convenience and not scratching the CDs. The quality is certainly noticeable compared to a low bit rate .MP3 file.
     
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  3. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    As mentioned compression is either lossy or lossless.

    MP3 compression is lossy. Meaning data is literally thrown away, once its gone you can't get it back, its a concept called information loss.

    A WAV file stores all the information uncompressed at a certain sampling rate. Converting from MP3 will do you no good as the information that was lost from WAV -> MP3 will not get magically recreated when you go MP3 -> WAV.

    Lossy compression is a 'one way function' in that its not reversible.
     
  4. zxspectrum

    zxspectrum Terabyte Poster Forum Leader Gold Member

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    Cheers for the feedback, I thought it would be that way.

    I was also told that depending on the quality of the speaker/headphone, which most smart phones wont have, will also depend on the sound quality, which I already knew, so it would be pointless having wav/flac music files unless i had quality speakers etc.

    Ed
     
    Certifications: BSc computing and information systems
    WIP: 70-680
  5. dmarsh
    Honorary Member 500 Likes Award

    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    MP3 is generally fine for headphones as long as its a higher bitrate (256kbps or better) or variable bitrate encoding.
     
  6. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    dmarsh is right unless your an bonafide audiophile and have top brass music system MP3's will be preferable. The only thing you might pick up on is on things like cymbals and hi-hats having a false white-noisey paper kinda sound to them on lower bitrate encodes. I always associate WAV's with the pre MP3 age Windows 3.11 sound recorder anyone!
     
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