Hi all. I have some low bitrate mp3s that I would like to upconvert. I know that converting between lossy formats is not a good idea. So, I was wondering if I burned these lower quality mp3s to cd, then ripped and encoded them using a higher bitrate, would this help at all, or would it just be a waste of time? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

No, it would not. You can never get back what you have lost.

The best thing you can do with them is leave them as they are.

And this is why mp3 is a "lossy" encoder - it compresses files by throwing away some of the data. "Lossless" encoders, on the other hand, simply compress the data but nothing is lost.

One more thing... re-encoding your low-quality mp3s to some other format or to higher bitrate mp3s is the same as burning them to CD first and then ripping and encoding the tracks to some other format or to higher bitrate mp3s.

In both cases they will be converted from mp3 to PCM (CD Audio) and then back to mp3, with the difference that you unecessarily store the files as PCM audio on a CD-R when you burn them. So you will not only (slightly) degrade the sound quality even further but also waste one CD-R or in case of a CD-RW waste some time.

Yes, like Synthetic Soul said, keep them as they are. When you don't like the sound quality then try to find a better source for the music if that's possible.

what a philosophical theory ,i have deep feeling about it in life.