Re: why does the file sound better
Reply #12 –
If you were to tell me that you could discern 160kbit mp3 from the original source, I'd believe you. An ABX test should be performed, but 160kbit mp3 is commonly accepted as non-transparent.
If you're experiencing a large jump in volume from mp3 to wave then the issue will likely be caused by the mp3 containing replaygain data and the player using this data, whereas the level correction was not employed when the wave file was played back. This could either be that the replaygain data was discarded during the conversion or was maintained as a RIFF chunk in the wav file which was not used by the player. It could instead/also be limiting by the OS, but I seriously doubt it. The existence of replaygain data in the mp3 file can be determined with a proper tag editor such as mp3tag or foobar2000. If you use foobar2000 for playback and/or conversion you can elect whether not to use this data. I can't speak for dbpoweramp.
It's also possible, that converting mp3 to flac will retain replaygain data, which would likely mean the playback level between the two won't change. However, it seems like the differences you're describing do not include the same change in level, in which case it's simply placebo effect. Decoding mp3 results in the exact same audio data regardless of whether the destination format is flac or wave.
While it might feel insulting to be told you're imagining differences, placebo effect/expectation bias is quite normal.
Without a proper ABX log and audio samples (which don't exceed 30 seconds in order to help address copyright infringement) we can't really know what is really happening.