Audio Quality Question. Please Help!

[Dunkaccino]

So in my iTunes library, I have roughly 1220 songs encoded at 192 kbps AAC with (VBR). I recently got a larger iPod, so my concern is me wanting to upgrade all my songs to say 256kbps or even 320 kbps to squeeze out more quality.

Would converting from the smaller files (192) to a better quality work? I know you can downgrade from a 320 to 128 and what not, but thought it may not be true 256 quality if I convert my smaller files to larger ones. I know I have the option of doing this, but didn't know if it would really upgrade the smaller file to a better one. How does that work? Thank You

 

[mesq]

Can't be done.

Well it probably can be done but it will be the same (or worse) as the original 192kbit

 

[Dunkaccino]

Can't be done.

Well it probably can be done but it will be the same (or worse) as the original 192kbit

That is what I was thinking but I did notice a slight change when I converted some samples. Could have easily been my imagination just knowing there were supposed to be higher bit rate though.

Anyone else know how to do this?

 

[mesq]

Mp3 encoding is a destructive compression. Once you compress it you lose bits of it. The only way to do what you want is go through collection and convert from Wave file to 320kbit.

 

[Dunkaccino]

so I have to import my whole library and then convert all over again?

Gosh, thats very frustrating.

 

[Pili]

If your going to take the time to re-import all of your music, you might as well encode as apple lossless if you have the HD space on your computer. You retain the original CD quality and can always make lower bit rate copies for your mobile devices. Lossless is a storage hog though so make sure you have a lot of space.

 

[fikkser]

I bet you won't notice the difference between 192 and 320 anyway. Not worth the effort. For use in an ipod I'd say anything above 160 is super.

Try it yourself, export a wav to mp3 in different bitrates and listen to random versions. I've read a test where music producers tried and they could not differ high bitrate mp3s from each other consistently.

Also there was a thread in a hifi forum with a blindtest you could take, it contained files exported from wav to different mp3 bitrates and back to wav to hide what bitrate they were, guess what, no replys to the thread, no one wanted to lose their cool hifi reputation which I think is ********.

 

[ChrisA]

Would converting from the smaller files (192) to a better quality work?

The ONLY way to upgrade the sound quality is to re-rip from the CDs. The compression process throws away information and you can never get it back, except by going back to the CD.

I keep most of my iTunes in Apple Lossless format. this is as good as the CD. Then If I want a smaller version I can convert from Apple Lossless.

to those who say "you will never notice". They might be right. Most people will never be able to hear the differerence between 160K and 320K AAC or lossless. But many people can notice and I think anyone with normal hearing and good equipment can learn to notice the difference.

It's like anything else. If you spend hours every day with a guitar you will learn to notice the different in sound when you change the strings. A casual listener would never notice the new strings. Same here. A causal listener with cheep earbud headphones will never notice. But maybe you are listening critically and have a good set of studio headphones. I don't know.

 

[eawmp1]

so I have to import my whole library and then convert all over again?

Gosh, thats very frustrating.

But if you rip a lossless version THIS time, you will never have to do it again. I went through this 1 year ago..a pain that takes up disk space, but in the end woth it.

 

[Dunkaccino]

I ripped a few songs at 320 and I can honestly say there IS quite a difference. I am now importing all my songs at 320 AAC (VBR). I use Bose headphones which are deep on bass and it's more clear and sharper IMHO.