Mp3 files

[ahsley]

What is the format to maintain editing mp3 files without affecting the quality?

[paul_pci]

What exactly do you mean here? Are you talking about ripping songs from a CD onto a computer (or digital player) without compression? "Maintain editing" isn't clear.

[nightflier]

MP3 is a compressed format. So any Wav file converted to MP3 is going to be compressed, meaning that it will loose some quality. If your question is at what point this is audible, then it all depends on how good you can hear and whether your MP3 listening device is of good enough quality for you to hear it. Generally speaking, 384kbps compression achieves a minimal level of compression w/o loosing too much data. In my opinion this is not audible on most home stereos.

Now for my MP3 player, I cut that down to 128kbps to save space. I use the player outdoors mostly and while I have a decent set of headphones, there is still a fair amount of outside noise that makes it into my ears, so the quality is not that important to me. That said, it's a pain to store multiple versions of the same file on my computer.

[JoeE SP9]

MP3 is a compressed format. So any Wav file converted to MP3 is going to be compressed, meaning that it will loose some quality. If your question is at what point this is audible, then it all depends on how good you can hear and whether your MP3 listening device is of good enough quality for you to hear it. Generally speaking, 384kbps compression achieves a minimal level of compression w/o loosing too much data. In my opinion this is not audible on most home stereos.

Now for my MP3 player, I cut that down to 128kbps to save space. I use the player outdoors mostly and while I have a decent set of headphones, there is still a fair amount of outside noise that makes it into my ears, so the quality is not that important to me. That said, it's a pain to store multiple versions of the same file on my computer.
I played some 128kbps MP3's for my audio buddies and they knew right away that the sound was not right. I did not tell them what they were listening to until they questioned me about the lack of sound quality. After re-doing the same wave files at 256kbps they both agreed that the sound was good enough for background listening. I must admit having several hours of music on a CD can be a good thing when entertaining. For serious listening vinyl, SACD and RBCD in this order is my preference.

[E-Stat]

What is the format to maintain editing mp3 files without affecting the quality?
I use Soundforge to edit MP3 files. While it maintains the MP3 quality, MP3s by themselves are inferior to the CD format from which most derive. There is a reason it is called a "lossy" format.

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