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Topic: MP3 to Flac sound quality (Read 11057 times) previous topic - next topic
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MP3 to Flac sound quality

If I were to convert an MP3 file to a flac file, would the sound quality be better?  I realize that the converted mp3-to-flac file still has missing audio data, low-pass filter etc. - what I am wondering is will the increased bit rate (~1000kbs "fake" flac vs. 320kbs mp3) make the sound of a higher quality? Thanks in advance..

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #1 –
The sound quality won't improve. You'll end up with the same sound quality as what you started with only a bigger file.

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #2 –
Quote from: pegcityevolve on
what I am wondering is will the increased bit rate (~1000kbs "fake" flac vs. 320kbs mp3) make the sound of a higher quality?

Bitrate is foremost a measure of file size. An increase in bitrate could only be correlated with improved perceived audio quality when comparing encodes made by the same encoder. Across different encoders, bitrate is not necessarily, if at all, correlated with perceived audio quality. In short, it is invalid to assume that e.g. 128 kbit/s Vorbis (libvorbis) sounds better than 64 kbit/s MP3 (LAME).

The bitrate for FLAC files is of course only a measure of file sizes, since FLAC is lossless.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #3 –
You would be transcoding and that's a big no-no.

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #4 –
I always wonder how those asking this question don’t perform a simple thought experiment: how could upscaling increase the quality, given that any discarded data is by its nature irretrievable?

All you will have is a larger, more wasteful representation of the same (degraded) data. You just cannot get something from nothing.

Hey, is this perhaps some derivative of the CSI-magical-image-upscaling myth? Heh.

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Kitlope on
You would be transcoding and that's a big no-no.

Please read the original post more carefully. He is reencoding from lossy to lossless!

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #6 –
I'd like to add that mp3 -> flac can actually result in a reduction in quality if there are decoded samples that exceed full-scale which don't get preserved.  I'm not trying to suggest that this will result in audible degradation.  This is really only relevant if you're doing gain reduction prior to decoding for playback or are playing back in such a way that peaks above 1.0 are somehow preserved.

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #8 –
Quote from: greynol on
I'd like to add that mp3 -> flac can actually result in a reduction in quality if there are decoded samples that exceed full-scale which don't get preserved.

You never know, with people's preferences being all wonky due to the loudness war, familiarity with the lossy "sound", and sub-par listening environments, some people might feel those clipped peaks are an improvement!
 

MP3 to Flac sound quality

Reply #9 –
What happens if you rip a CD to e.g 320 kbs MP3.
You have  16/ 44.1 kHz audio and the encoder throws out a lot of info but it remains 16 / 44.1 audio.
What happens on playback?
DACs don’t understand anything about file formats.
So the decoder expand the MP3 to raw PCM, a 16 / 44.1 kHz  audio stream with a bit rate of 1411 kbits.
Expanding MP3 offline to FLAC or WAV don’t make sense as  all audio will be expanded to a format the DAC does understand regardless of the original file format.
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