MP3 in Wave... how's the sound quality?

Well, hello there! My question is actually this:
I have a handful of MP3 files that I’m looking to convert over to the Wave format using some high-quality software,
but here is what I am wondering—would I actually experience any improvement in sound quality by switching to Wave if the source material is already an MP3?

No.

When you convert a .wav file to an .mp3, you lose data—specifically, the frequencies the human ear can't pick up get stripped away. If you try to convert that .mp3 back into a .wav, you aren't getting anything back; the information is gone. You're just left with the same degraded sound.

So, if you're actually chasing high-fidelity audio, don't bother with conversions. Just hunt down a higher bitrate MP3 or, better yet, grab the original CD.

placidranger said:not quite.

When you convert a Wave file to an MP3, you're essentially throwing away data—specifically, the frequencies the human ear isn't tuned to pick up. If you were to try converting that MP3 back into a Wave, you wouldn't magically get those lost details back. The audio remains exactly what it was after the first compression.

So, if you're chasing higher fidelity, your best bet is hunting down high-bitrate MP3s or, better yet, the original CD rip.

Stick to 320 kbps MP3s if you want the best possible quality within that format.

Think of it like this: imagine you have a massive, high-res photo—say, 5000x5000 pixels. If you shrink it down to 1000x1000, you've discarded a lot of visual information. You can try to blow that small image back up to its original size, but it’s just going to look blurry and pixelated because the raw data simply isn't there anymore. It's the exact same principle with Wave versus MP3.

To’s the long and short of it... once you turn an elephant into a mouse, you aren't turning that mouse back into an elephant.

As for MP3s and bitrates, I’m fine with 128kbps. Some people will argue it’s basically mono, but they're wrong—it sits right on the edge, but there's still a stereo field there. Plus, the file size in MB usually matches the song length pretty closely. If a track is about 4 minutes long, you're looking at roughly 4 MB.😛

I mean, seriously, does the author actually use their brain before hitting publish? They set the topic up in such a way that even my grandmother could tell those two things just don't belong together.

ruggedpanther64 said:I mean, does the author even use their brain before posting? Even my grandmother knows those two things don't go together.

The question isn't senseless. There are lossy and lossless compressions—plain and simple.

placidranger said:the question isn't actually nonsense at all—you've got compression with quality loss and compression without it.

Yeah, I mean, an MP3 is lossy, while FLAC is lossless... kind of like how you can't just turn an Adobe file back into a RAW photo....
Sure, you could technically convert it back to a WAV, but the quality is still gonna be exactly the same as what you started with...

The best move is probably just to re-rip the music (I'd personally go with FLAC) or just find a better version from the jump... like 320kbps or even higher.