Mp3->AAC

dmband0026dmband0026
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
In iTunes there is an option to convert an Mp3 song to AAC. Whats the point? I know that AAC is much higher quality, but if the song is already Mp3, the quality shouldn't go up. Thats like taking an old vinal and putting it on CD through the computer, the quality won't go up, will it? I just wanted to know, because I love the sound of the newer AAC format but I don't want to waste time and hard drive space to convert my Mp3s to AAC if it isn't going to do anything. Thanks





(Edit):

How much of an improvement in quality is there from Mp3 to AAC. Not converting from mp3 to AAC, but ripping from CD to AAC. Is there really a huge difference?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    It's not worth the space or the time. I tried conveting a CD's worth of songs from MP3 to AAC, and the quality was pretty much exactly the same, though I do have pretty poor headphones.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    xmogerxmoger Posts: 242member
    It's not possible to get better quality. It's dependent on the codecs but you usually won't even get equivalent quality.



    Think of it this way, if you could compress something(pictures, music, movies) to a lossy format that's really small and looks/sounds really bad, then convert it back to either the full quality or a high quality compression, then we wouldn't need high quality DVDs, quicktime trailers or AAC music and waste all that file size/bandwidth. We could just download the garbage version and magically recreate the lost information.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    but if you don't lose quality, aac is a smaller file size therefore you can put more songs per MB right???? If you had a 10MB ipod would you then have more storage for AAC format?
  • Reply 4 of 8
    xmogerxmoger Posts: 242member
    If your mp3s were, say 192kbit VBR and you transcoded them to 128kbit VBR AAC, filesizes WOULD be smaller. The issue is that the efficiency difference of encoding AAC vs LAME MP3s is small. Since there are probably significant differences between the 2 standards and more differences between different implementations, sound quality loss is very probable.



    The easiest way I can suggest is testing out a few songs doing a double blind test on the best equipment you'll listen to your music on. If you can't tell the difference with a smaller AAC song, then go for it.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    It should be noted that this feature works both ways.



    For example, if you change your "Importing" setting in the iTunes Preferences to the MP3 Encoder, that option changes to, "Convert songs to MP3". I use this if I want to send an AAC file to a friend that has a PC.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DMBand0026

    In iTunes there is an option to convert an Mp3 song to AAC. Whats the point?



    The only good reason to do this would be if you want to share the files with someone who couldn't play AAC files, or load them onto an MP3 player that can't do AAC. And yes, as you said, you'd incur some loss of fidelity doing this.



    How much of an improvement in quality is there from Mp3 to AAC. Not converting from mp3 to AAC, but ripping from CD to AAC. Is there really a huge difference?



    There are better MP3 encoders than the one built into iTunes, but various listening tests I've read about online put AAC ahead MP3 in general, and also put QuickTimes's AAC ahead of other AAC encoders.



    This is all very subjective, however. If you start Googling, you will find some both positive and negative reactions to AAC. Some comments you'll find about AAC are based on earlier releases of Quicktime AAC that aren't as good as what we now have. Many comments are made based on tests with no effort to "blind" the listener from knowing which encoding is being used -- making those comments of questionable value.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    future-ex-pc-userfuture-ex-pc-user Posts: 208member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DMBand0026



    How much of an improvement in quality is there from Mp3 to AAC. Not converting from mp3 to AAC, but ripping from CD to AAC. Is there really a huge difference?



    I've tested those two encodings yesterday with itunes.

    I know this is subjective, but I'd say a 128AAC has at least the same sound quality as a 256MP3.

    (I've tested this on a Bowers & Wilkins system, so this information is a bit more objective.)
Sign In or Register to comment.