Suppose I have a FLAC music file and I convert it to let’s say 192 kbps mp3 and then I use this 192 kbps file as a base and create another conversion to 160 kbps.

Not supose I take the source Flac file again and convert directly to 160 kbps.

Do both 160 kbps files have the same quality?

  • Zapador@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    No.

    You can test this for yourself.

    1. Open FLAC file in Audacity
    2. Save as 192 Kbps MP3
    3. Also as 160 Kbps MP3
    4. Close the FLAC file that’s open in Audacity
    5. Open the 192 Kbps MP3 you just saved
    6. Now save this as 160 Kbps MP3
    7. Close the 192 Kbps MP3 that’s open in Audacity
    8. Open the one of the 160 Kbps MP3 files and also import the other 160 Kbps MP3
    9. Select one of the tracks, all of it, and use Effect -> Invert
    10. Now save this as a WAV file

    What you will get is a file that contains only the differences between these two MP3 files and nothing more. If there’s any difference you can either see it (check Spectrogram) or hear it. If the files are 100% identical this exported WAV file will be 100% empty.

    Hope that made sense.