[Leoml88]

I have about 300 .wma files. I cannot rerip them because they are not my cds, but rather a friends.

The 4th generation ipod seems appealing and if I get it (depending on reviews), I will have to convert these files. What is the best way without loosing too much sound quality? I'm not an audiophile and I have a $20 pair of headphones; however, I'm a musician and have a good ear. Will I hear a huge difference in sound quality by converting them to .mp3s?

 

[pank2002]

Well, try it and tell us. How would anybody be able to tell if YOU would be able to hear the diffrent?

You won't get a great result if you go wma->mp3 wma have cut of some parts and the mp3 codec will cut of other parts.

Any encoder should be able to do it really. dBPoweramp is one. Personally I prefer J River Media Center but it isn't free.

 

[blessingx]

The Windows version of iTunes has an automatic WMA conversion to at least AAC (and maybe MP3). What's the bitrate of the WMA files? I did some transcoding when I switched from Windows to OS X, and as long as you increase the bitrate to give it some headroom (and minimize the artifacts on artifacts) the damage won't be too bad (and sometimes not even noticeable). Remember Minidisc people transcode all the time. Not ideal, but not the end of the world if you can't get the originals back.

 

[Leoml88]

what is transcoding? Is it tedious?

btw, this is only if I get the new ipod. The other main contender is the iRiver iHP-120 and if I get that, I won't have to worry about it.

 

[pank2002]

To code a lossy format to another lossy format in this case.

 

[Mr.Radar]

There are two types of audio codecs: lossy and lossless. Lossless codecs will decode to exactly their input. Popular lossless codecs are FLAC, Monkey's Audio, and Apple Lossless. Lossy codecs, like MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and Musepack (MPC) will throw out audio information in ways it thinks you won't hear. The lower the bitrate, the more information is thrown away. When you do lossy to lossy transcoding you compound the information which is thrown away because different codecs throw away different information. Transcoding lossy to lossless will not loose any of the information in the lossy file but won't get any of it back. Transcoding from lossless to lossy (assuming the lossless file comes from the original CD) will remove some of the information, however the information loss will not be compounded (EDIT

because there was no loss of information to begin with. Converting lossy -> lossless -> lossy will be just like converting lossy -> lossy.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leoml88 Is it tedious?

Not necessarily. Two years ago when I did it, I used
AlltoMP3Converter. Now I'd use dBPowerAmp or iTunes. In any case, it's pretty much just highlight and convert. Depending on the encoder used it can take a few hours, but that's about it. You may want to run over to HydrogenAudio and do a search on 'WMA' and 'MP3' for different solutions.

If you go AAC, iTunes is a very good solution, but if MP3, you may want to convert with something using the LAME MP3 encoder instead of iTunes, unless you really bump up the bitrates.

 

[Leoml88]

You can transcode using iTunes? I'd probably using that, since, as I've said, I will only need to convert if I get the new ipod.

And Mr. Radar, are you saying I should first convert to a lossless codec, such as apple lossless, and then convert to .mp3?

 

[Leoml88]

helloooooo

 

[Dweebgal]

wma---->lossless---->aac/mp3 wont make any difference.

you've still lost the original "information" from the song, converting to lossless first wont bring it back.

follow blessingx's advice if you absolutley have to transcode.

 

[Leoml88]

Are transcoding and converting the same thing?

 

[Dweebgal]

in what i was referring to, yes