MP3 to Flac sound quality Options

[pegcityevolve]

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..

This post has been edited by pegcityevolve: Dec 2 2011, 05:30

[RobertoDomenico]

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

[Kohlrabi]

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.

[Kitlope]

You would be transcoding and that's a big no-no.

[db1989]

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.

[pdq]

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!

[greynol]

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.

[db1989]

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!

It’s still a big no-no, though! (Besides in exceptional situations in which there is no other option.)

[mjb2006]

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!

[Roseval]

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.