Subject:MP3 degradation

Posted by: John777

Date:8/9/2006 11:56:56 AM

If I repeatedly open an MP3 file and then save it without making any edits, how fast will the sound quality degrade?

Is there data somewhere describing MP3 degradation due to repeated editing?

Thank you for the feedback.

Subject:RE: MP3 degradation

Reply by: drbam

Date:8/9/2006 3:38:23 PM

If you haven't made any edits, then the save button isn't even active. I suppose you could save from your keyboard but I don't think this will do anything to the file. Opening and closing is just that - opening and closing - nothing happens. You can even do some editing and experiment with it but if you don't save these changes, then the file isn't degraded. Anyway, there's no need to "save" if you haven't changed it some way.

Subject:RE: MP3 degradation

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:8/9/2006 6:49:25 PM

As drbam indicated, why would you bother saving it without editing anyway?

But, trivial questions aside ... it would probably depend heavily on the bitrate. Saving at 24kbps will degrade the quality horribly on the first save. It would probably be near unlistenable after just a couple more. On the other hand, 320kbps would probably hold up fairly decently for quite a few saves.