Please help me with flac!!

[mikeweezer80]

As i understand, flac is the best sounding fileformat there is. My entire collection is in mpeg format,mp3,and AAC for the most part. Can i convert these to flac or has the damage already been done? besides a cd, is there any other source (examples of file formats please) that would be able to handle the conversion? sorry if this sounds confusing, i just wanted to hear if it really is that good

 

[ErnieM]

The bitrate at which you originally ripped the source material is the upper limit for fidelity. So any track ripped at 128 kps (mp3) cannot be "improved" upon.

It's sort of like a photocopy. You can make another copy from a photocopy, but even if you use a super-duper copier / scanner, you can never make the image any better than the original photocopy.

For CDs that you own, it's best then to re-rip them in FLAC.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Once the file is in a lossy format such as MP3 etc it is not a perfect digital copy anymore and what information has been lost can't be recovered. Whats lost is lost. All you would be doing is making the file sizes drastically bigger if you convert those lossy files to FLAC.

Non-lossy formats (lossless) such as FLAC and ALAC are a perfect digital copy. You can convert from ALAC to FLAC without sacrificing any quality or CD to ALAC/FLAC.

 

[its phillip]

Transcoding lossy files is pointless, as the others have said.

Rip the cds again, preferably with eac (secure) to get a perfect copy. Here is a helpful guide on configuring eac:
http://blowfish.be/eac/

 

[ichigo]

Transcoding MP3 to FLAC...reminds me of how Creative made a entire business around a Sound Card that will "make your MP3s sound like CDs." using their "Crystallizer" technology (aka Smiley Face EQ).