Hi, Almost the totality of audio downloading is in mp3 format. Now, from a quality perspective .wav is supposed to be the best. Then my question: Is it worth to encode what downloaded in mp3 to .wav? I ask because I still do not have a DVD Player able to read CD-Rs therefore I listen to CD-Rs in my car. I am a "vinyl addicted", quality for me is a must, therefore now that I am about to buy a high end home player I am asking myself what's the best quality I can get from the net. This is the background to my question. I hope to get your advise. Alex
There's no reason why you shouldn't encode MP3 to WAV. You won't get better quality, as you simply can't put back what has been removed - at least not directly! You will be able to burn the tracks to CD though. As far as getting better sound goes, there are tools that will enhance what you have by generating harmonics in both the low end and the top end. Wether or not this is desirable is another matter altogether though. They are also a bit pricey. Give it a try from MP3 to WAV and let your ears be the judge on this one! If it sounds good enough for the car to you then it is. HTH
Trying to enhance MP3 may result in side effects and decreased quality. If lossy compressed files are manipulated, the manipulation can raise artefacts "to the surface" so that they are audible to the human ear.
Agreed - that's sort of what I meant when I said that the desirability is questionable. It can be done with care, but again the tools are not exactly within most budgets.
Hi, Well, I imagine that the conversion is done anyhow at the moment I burn the CD with Nero. So, what your are telling me is that there's no way to improve the mp3 quality unless I buy a professional tool that could not justify the value for the result. Am I right? What about the encoding offered by Nero "mp3 Pro"? Have you heard the difference comparing to the mp3 or is it just pure marketing? Again, I cannot judge because the car system cannot tell me the difference, if any. Thanks guys for your input.
Sorry for the confusion. Of course Nero is doing a conversion to wave files, what I was referring to was enhancement of the MP3 files. By burning to CD with Nero, the quality remains the same as it was with MP3. It's perfectly good enough for your needs, and I wouldn't worry about MP3 Pro. It's a way of getting the filesizes even smaller with no extra loss in quality. As you are putting the result onto CD, this is of no use to you. If you wanted to store the files on your PC, then it may be worth looking at.
