Convert MP3 file to WAV in Mac Mini

Jpod, it is true that converting the MP3 file to another lossless format should not make the file worse, possible but unlikely as you point out. However, there is no way to incorporate the orginal musical information back into the file once it has been compressed in a lossy format. What's lost is lost. What will happen is the software will fill in the blanks, so to speak, when you expand the file size. This may sound good, perhaps even better to you, but it will not be true to the original recording. This still falls into the garbage in garbage out category. You can dress up the pig, but it will still be a pig. The only guarantee is that your file size will increase exponentially. Once you have an MP3 leave it that. Try to stay with lossless if at all possible.

Just to clarify I should have said "converting the MP3 file to "a" lossless format", rather than using "another". That reads like MP3 is lossless, as the remainder of my post implies it most definitely is a lossy format.

Musicman07, I appreciate your feedback. And I don’t dispute what you say. Indeed the more I learn the more I realize any improvements I am hearing is due to my imagination. And as I said earlier, my imagination has certainly led me astray in other matters.

But there is one thing I don’t understand. You said, others have said, that the software “fills in the blanks” When does this occur? Does the Apple Lossless converter expand the MP3 file as it encodes or decodes? Or is the expansion done later by different software?

And is the software that expands a lossy file that has not been encoded into lossless, the same software that expands a lossy file that has been encoded into lossless?

Let me say I’m not trying to advocate converting MP3s to “lossless”. I’m just asking others to help me along in my understanding. For me PC audio seems like black boxes nested inside black boxes. I open one black box just to find another. And I’m not certain I’ve gotten the first box open. Anyway, any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
JPO

After reviewing my post and doing some more googleing and reading, I think I can refine my my questions.

Is the codec that decodes an MP3 file that has not been converted to Apple Lossless the same codec that decodes an MP3 file that has been converted to Apple Lossless?

JPO

Yes, this problem can easily be solved by using a video converter, like Zamzar (online) , Joyoshare Video Converter (offline video converter). If you only need to convert a few videos to FLV, you can use Zamzar. If you have batch videos, you are suggested to use the offline or desktop video converter, which supports to convert videos in batch with high speed.