title
Products            Buy            Support Forum            Professional            About            Codec Central
 
Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

  1. #1

    Question Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

    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.
    Last edited by soundandaudio; 01-19-2014 at 03:54 AM. Reason: Punctuation

  2. #2
    Administrator
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Posts
    43,855

    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.

  3. #3

    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?
    Last edited by soundandaudio; 01-19-2014 at 06:40 AM.

  4. #4
    Administrator
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Posts
    43,855

    Re: Ripping Flac and MP3 - Sound quality

    Different versions of encoders as you say.

  5. #5
    dBpoweramp Guru
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Florida, USA
    Posts
    5,735

    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.

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •