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murasame · #2 (**permalink**) November 11th, 2004

You can't improve the quality of something. Only the contrary. That's because to make an .mp3 the converter app will eliminate the info according to the quality settings the user has made. So, if the original file on the CD was, say, 10000Megs large (they are larger than that), the app will eliminate data in order to make a smaller file. If the quality chosen for the ripping is good (over 196) then the quality difference cannot be heard (unless you're, like, Chopin with a perfect ear...). Some encoders claim to be loss-less (like Apple's Loss-less Encoder) but all they do is cut down only a minimal fraction of the original file so that it still sounds pretty much the same, but that the resulting file is a little smaller (for instance, Apple's Loss-less cuts the original file to half the size).

Anyway, the reason why one cannot improve quality is because one cannot restore data that isn't there.