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I have several discs of MP3 downloads at various bitrates. I would like to copy these files to my hard drive (via iTunes) without further deteriorating the sound quality. Is it better to copy them as MP3's again, as they are already compressed, or should they be saved in a lossless format to avoid further compression?
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With each conversion... loss. Just put them where you want and you're done. I did that and iTunes sync'd them just fine. No conversions noted here.
Bob
So I should just set iTunes to import them as MP3's? What setting would I select for bitrate? The files on the discs vary in bitrate.
Bob wrote:
"With each conversion... loss. Just put them where you want and you're done. I did that and iTunes sync'd them just fine. No conversions noted here. "
It was my understanding that taking mp3's off a cd would be just a copying process, you drag the mp3's from the disc (use Explorer to open the disc in XP) to your ITunes folder and then it will sync them, no loss at all.
MP3's are already lossy so copying them to a lossless format such as .flac or .ape would not make them any better. Lossless formats are best for creating files from cd's where the cd's are NOT already lossy.
What you want to do if the files are already mp3's is not to convert them again to other bit rates, but just copy them to your hard drive.
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