Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

[soundandaudio]

I'm completely new to using the dBpoweramp CD Ripper.

Just something I'm a little curious about - For quite a while I've been ripping some of my CD's with Windows Media Player at the highest quality of 320 bit rate. Now keep in mind all CD's being ripped are originals. When I open up Audacity to analyze the spectrogram of the ripped tracks most of them are measuring at 15K.

Now if I rip the same tracks in Flac or MP3 in dBpoweramp. They measure in at much higher quality of 20 - 22K.

When ripping what is dBpoweramp doing to record such a higher rip?

Personally I thought WMP was ripping all tracks at the highest they could be.

[Spoon]

Re: Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

The wmp mp3 encoder is cutting off the higher frequencies, the Lame encoder does not do this if encoding at the highest quality.

[soundandaudio]

Re: Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

After a little research it appears that WMP is using mp3 (Fraunhofer IIS).

Why would a codec be created that cuts off higher frequencies?

My only possible thought would be that WMP have stayed on the exact same version of Fraunhofer IIS as technology has moved on.

Edit: I've just noticed a few mp3 files I've purchased off remix sites have appeared to be encoded with Fraunhofer IIS ("FHG Guess"). And yet the spectrogram off them are hitting 20-22K.

Any ideas as to why this could be?

[Spoon]

Re: Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

Different versions of encoders as you say.

[garym]

Re: Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

Most people serious about their mp3 files moved to LAME encoder many years ago. Not much to worry about though....if you're over about 35 years old (and certainly if your over 45) you can't hear anything above 15kh anyhow.