if I decode an mp3 file in wav with wavlab and then recode the wav file in mp3; the new mp3 file will suffer a qualitative decay compared to the original mp3 file?
I hope I was clear, thank you very much

 

Good question. I've done this often but never compared (wasn't necessary).

Technically speaking, probably yes. Is it audible? Well, that depends on the mp3's resolution (the higher the better, ofc) and the audio material. With highly dynamic content or 'fragile' single sounds this could become recognizable, with over compressed full content, probably not so much, if that.

 

Once you've gone lossy, it's always lossy. Meaning, you can't get back the data that you throw away once you turn it into an mp3.

And if you go mp3 twice, you go "double shit".

 

You lose

 

As I said, it depends.
Have a listen to wav (44.1kHz 16bit) vs 3rd gen mp3 (320 & 128kbps). Do you recognize the order???

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ldyaAMZd-uShNcljA8dOUWGyNe275-jr

Spoiler: Here you can see the difference, but listen first!!!

btw, the audio order is the same wav -> 320 -> 128.

 

Last edited: Aug 2, 2019

https://ufile.io/3cp91z5b

Exclusivity!! Updating one of my bonuses

Lavc finally passed FLAC and WAVE better than these builds would not exist in the universe.


Lavc 58.35 (from 2019-Jul-18): Add more bass and impact if your song needs

Lavc 58.55 (from 2019-Jul-27): Remove excess you need to test both codecs to see which result leaves its perfect music

 

Now if some photoshop guru would layer them with different colour for comparing, maybe RGB and you would easily see the difference by white