Free software to convert mp3 to wav audio ?

Helmut said:

"mp3 from youtube and wanted to covert wav format to sound close to CD."

That is not possible as MP3 is lossy and that is it, some quality has been lost. You cannot get the CD quality back. All it does is increase the file size.

The result after converting mp3 to wav for me improve a bit, sound less compress, fine quality compare to mp3.
I won't complain as i'm picky in choosing music and taste is mostly at 90s.

"sound less compress"

Not possible. Your source material is MP3 which uses a lossy compression method, some data is permanently lost.
You cannot magically get that back by changing to a WAV file.

Helmut said:

"sound less compress"

Not possible. Your source material is MP3 which uses a lossy compression method, some data is permanently lost.
You cannot magically get that back by changing to a WAV file.

I choose good quality mp3. I also compare my wav music with my other CDs, about the same. Of course i also own decent soundcard, speaker, speaker cable and also i don't use cartridge fuse on power line for my whole setup.

Helmut said:

"sound less compress"

Not possible. Your source material is MP3 which uses a lossy compression method, some data is permanently lost.
You cannot magically get that back by changing to a WAV file.

That's true! But...
Converting mp3 to wav gives a little bit better sound for sure and of course, it doesn't mean that lost data comes back. The same happens converting any sound format, lossless or lossy, to wav. The difference is almost not audible if your sound monitor system -or your hearing- is not reliable enough.
So, what @teots states is also true.

Helmut said:

"sound less compress"

Not possible. Your source material is MP3 which uses a lossy compression method, some data is permanently lost.
You cannot magically get that back by changing to a WAV file.

DAC chips contain analog parts that can be incredibly sensitive to electrical noise patterns propagating onto the chip's intestines via the PCB in a number of ways such as the power signal that feeds the chip, the chip's data I/O pins (as the data signal is electrical too, so electric noise rides this signal no matter the fact it's digital), the clock signal (same deal, as it too is an electrical signal), and via electromagnetic interference (EMI). Other important factors also include clock jitter the characteristics of which are part dependent of noise patterns entering the oscillator clock, which generates the clock signal. Internal soundcards tend to be a lot more susceptible to these unwanted side effects when compared to a well engineered external DAC, like, for example, my Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme. Not all external DACs are well engineered, though. Also, audio is part science, part subjectiveness, so there's plenty of room for musical debate, which is similar to architectural dancing, only different.

An MP3 (whatever bitrate) is "something less than full fidelity". Converting to a Redbook wav file (16 bit 44.1Khz - CD Quality) does not recover the lost fidelity.

I have a recording studio and have tried "processing" a converted MP3 to wav and with high end studio software full fidelity was never recovered.

HeM said:

That's true! But...
Converting mp3 to wav gives a little bit better sound for sure and of course, it doesn't mean that lost data comes back. The same happens converting any sound format, lossless or lossy, to wav. The difference is almost not audible if your sound monitor system -or your hearing- is not reliable enough.
So, what @teots states is also true.

My point exactly─a computer playing a wav file generates different electric noise patterns via the motherboard's PCIe lanes and radiates different EMI patterns compared to a computer playing an mp3 file, i.e. due to differences in CPU activity and disk activity. A lot of people just assume that an internal PCIe soundcard's voltage regulators eliminate the electric noise and that a metal shield cover plate on the soundcard's PCB eliminates EMI, all to the point of inaudibility, but these people are simply making wrong assumptions. In fact a DAC chip outputs an analog signal that is very weak so it needs to be brought up to line level (through op-amps) before it is passed on to the soundcard's analog line output connectors. This line stage is yet another example of a set of electronics components that, because they are analog, are susceptible to the noisy environment that is the interior of a computer. In an external DAC unit of superior quality, you can expect to find things like robust isolation transformers, additional thick metal shielding of the enclosure also including metal between the (XMOS) USB interface module and the main PCB, toroidal power transformers having been implemented to create a very low noise environment, etc..

teots said:

I want to convert my mp3 to wav audio. Any good and free software to recommend ? Thanks.

IDK how well the windows version works in comparison, but I use the Linux version of Audacity. It can improve the sound quality of low bitrate mp3s. You're going to lose some data, but the equalizer, normalizer, and clipping filters will eliminate the popping and cracking sounds you get from youtube quality music. You can transcode almost any audio file to any of dozens of other formats once you have the sound you want.

It's 100% free.

PEBMAFerror said:

IDK how well the windows version works in comparison, but I use the Linux version of Audacity. It can improve the sound quality of low bitrate mp3s. You're going to lose some data, but the equalizer, normalizer, and clipping filters will eliminate the popping and cracking sounds you get from youtube quality music. You can transcode almost any audio file to any of dozens of other formats once you have the sound you want.

It's 100% free.

The Windows version of Audacity works perfectly IME, but to eliminate popping and cracking sounds you can also use ClickRepair in automatic mode, which is 100% free also. For batch conversion of files, foobar2000 with all the necessary addons already goes a long way. It too is 100% free. Or simply get a paid license of dBpoweramp (with the optional codec pack for it that can be downloaded from dBpoweramp website 100% for free) so that you can use multiple cores of your CPU if you need faster conversion speed in addition to ripping audio CDs with AccurateRip, but if you only need AccurateRip you can use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) instead, as the latter is 100% free.

As an aside, back in the day when I was still using onboard (Realtek) sound and a powered, 5.1 channel, plastic speaker package from a cheap brand called Hercules, I used to experiment with "sound improvement" software choices such as Stereo Tool and SRS WOW, and, by combining these two programs together, I was able to achieve a much better sound that turned out to be acceptable for creating a good party atmosphere, albeit these days I just stick to my audiophile setup and play Hi Rez FLAC files with WASAPI because I wanted better fidelity with a more detailed, neutral/transparent character of the sound via a big pair of passive floorstanding speakers (paired with a beefy stereo power amplifier).

teots said:

Update: To all peoples, i found out this info, might be useful to anyone MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC: all the audio file formats explained | What Hi-Fi?. And i also using this http://www.bonkenc.org to convert my mp3 to wav.

What convertor software you peoples recommended might be better tho. And i rarely rip CD. I download english, chinese, cantonese and japanese pop/rock mp3 from youtube and wanted to covert wav format to sound close to CD.

Hi there

@teots

You can't improve the original source quality of the audio - if it's Lossy to start with (mp3 particularly with anything less than 250 kbs) you are just wasting your time and expense -- in fact you probably will degrade the original mp3 sound !! as it's bound to have more noticeable artifacts in it.

Think of a small photo taken on a mobile phone in .jpg format -- and then blow it up to poster size --all you'll see probably is just a pixelated mass.

If your player can't play mp3 then that's another issue but I can't imagine anything made in the last 15 years or so whether hardware or software not being able to handle mp3's.

Cheers
jimbo