What do I use to convert M4A to MP3?

[Fant0men]

Well I use a player that I've had for years and it's got a Burr Brown DAC and it's very good and has good quality.  To be honest, when it comes to the human ear, you only really notice the difference typically when listening to a drum kit and you can hear the cymbals they sound more realistic with FLAC audio.  Due to the MP3 sounding pretty good on a Burr Brown you won't really hear the difference with Vocals or Guitars or Keyboards or Bass it's just simply Drums that make the difference.  FLAC does sound a bit better but really the human ear can't hear that much and if you disagree then you've obviously convinced yourself it sounds better.  What really matters is how good the audio is when it was originally mixed in the studio and how it was mastered properly on a mixing desk and the quality of the equipment used.  Not really whether you're listening to FLAC or MP3, I have some MP3s that sound really good and especially when listening in headphones the sound is very nice and of a very high standard.

Some of it may be placebo, sure, but the point is why listen to lower quality than necessary? If I can find FLAC I always go for that. I think it's silly not to do that. My head does feel different after having blasted FLAC music for hours on end, compared with MP3. My ears and my brain get tired because of the background noise and "tin can" sound of MP3s.

I'll probably get a DAC in the future, but as of right now my current setup works well enough.

[RodneyYouPlonker]

Well I use a player that I've had for years and it's got a Burr Brown DAC and it's very good and has good quality.  To be honest, when it comes to the human ear, you only really notice the difference typically when listening to a drum kit and you can hear the cymbals they sound more realistic with FLAC audio.  Due to the MP3 sounding pretty good on a Burr Brown you won't really hear the difference with Vocals or Guitars or Keyboards or Bass it's just simply Drums that make the difference.  FLAC does sound a bit better but really the human ear can't hear that much and if you disagree then you've obviously convinced yourself it sounds better.  What really matters is how good the audio is when it was originally mixed in the studio and how it was mastered properly on a mixing desk and the quality of the equipment used.  Not really whether you're listening to FLAC or MP3, I have some MP3s that sound really good and especially when listening in headphones the sound is very nice and of a very high standard.

Some of it may be placebo, sure, but the point is why listen to lower quality than necessary? If I can find FLAC I always go for that. I think it's silly not to do that. My head does feel different after having blasted FLAC music for hours on end, compared with MP3. My ears and my brain get tired because of the background noise and "tin can" sound of MP3s.

I'll probably get a DAC in the future, but as of right now my current setup works well enough.

Well sure, everybody gets used to their own system and their own listening habits.  I don't exactly go out of my way especially these days to buy all the latest equipment, I have an old player now.  I am thinking about maybe one day buying something new but I don't be going to some kind of massive expense.  I have, in the past, made CD Rips and I have copied music from a disc and then encoded them into both MP3 and FLAC at the same time and then listened on my Burr Brown DAC and there was just very slight difference, there was a tiny little bit of improvement.  It was so slight and all I can describe really is that when listening to a live Drumkit you can really hear the sound of the drums and the cymbals more with better bitrate and you can hear a more realistic kind of sound in that respect.  When some drummer dude gives a good wack on a cymbal you can really hear how good the sound is.  There is truth though in the amount of listening time you spend and yes if you do listen for longer to MP3 you might always want to listen more to the Lossless instead.  There's always that chance it might be better I would normally listen to something in both formats so I could compare them.  I do actually like movie soundtracks especially when played on a Blu Ray because the sound is a lot higher frequency and the music sounds really good Standard CD 16-bit does sound a bit old fashioned but I would still buy them even in 2020.

[Fant0men]

Well sure, everybody gets used to their own system and their own listening habits.  I don't exactly go out of my way especially these days to buy all the latest equipment, I have an old player now.  I am thinking about maybe one day buying something new but I don't be going to some kind of massive expense.  I have, in the past, made CD Rips and I have copied music from a disc and then encoded them into both MP3 and FLAC at the same time and then listened on my Burr Brown DAC and there was just very slight difference, there was a tiny little bit of improvement.  It was so slight and all I can describe really is that when listening to a live Drumkit you can really hear the sound of the drums and the cymbals more with better bitrate and you can hear a more realistic kind of sound in that respect.  When some drummer dude gives a good wack on a cymbal you can really hear how good the sound is.  There is truth though in the amount of listening time you spend and yes if you do listen for longer to MP3 you might always want to listen more to the Lossless instead.  There's always that chance it might be better I would normally listen to something in both formats so I could compare them.  I do actually like movie soundtracks especially when played on a Blu Ray because the sound is a lot higher frequency and the music sounds really good Standard CD 16-bit does sound a bit old fashioned but I would still buy them even in 2020.

Yeah, I hear that, about not going out of my way to spend money on new equipment. I can also understand soulcity in that respect, using the old MP3 player until it breaks, but there comes a time for me when I say "okay, that's it". Usually, this point is reached when new and better hardware (than what I have) costs almost nothing, and there's a significant benefit in upgrading. Even my PC consists of mostly cheap parts, but it was still a big jump from my previous box (since it was fairly old).

From what I understand, especially high frequency sounds (like cymbals) improve with higher bitrate, as you say. Something to do with how compression works. Maybe it's because lossy formats like MP3 cut off the higher and lower frequencies, at least that's my understanding (though I may be wrong about this).

BluRay has great sound. Agreed. I think both TrueHD and DTS-HDMA is 24-bit? Or did you mean playing standard Audio CDs (with movie soundtracks) on a BluRay player? There should be no difference in that case between playing on a PC, CD player or BluRay player, but I guess the BluRay player has more expensive and dedicated circuitry for audio than a typical PC does. Not to mention the software / OS in a BluRay player is made only for one purpose, to play video and audio, so perhaps that helps as well.

[RodneyYouPlonker]

Well sure, everybody gets used to their own system and their own listening habits.  I don't exactly go out of my way especially these days to buy all the latest equipment, I have an old player now.  I am thinking about maybe one day buying something new but I don't be going to some kind of massive expense.  I have, in the past, made CD Rips and I have copied music from a disc and then encoded them into both MP3 and FLAC at the same time and then listened on my Burr Brown DAC and there was just very slight difference, there was a tiny little bit of improvement.  It was so slight and all I can describe really is that when listening to a live Drumkit you can really hear the sound of the drums and the cymbals more with better bitrate and you can hear a more realistic kind of sound in that respect.  When some drummer dude gives a good wack on a cymbal you can really hear how good the sound is.  There is truth though in the amount of listening time you spend and yes if you do listen for longer to MP3 you might always want to listen more to the Lossless instead.  There's always that chance it might be better I would normally listen to something in both formats so I could compare them.  I do actually like movie soundtracks especially when played on a Blu Ray because the sound is a lot higher frequency and the music sounds really good Standard CD 16-bit does sound a bit old fashioned but I would still buy them even in 2020.

BluRay has great sound. Agreed. I think both TrueHD and DTS-HDMA is 24-bit? Or did you mean playing standard Audio CDs (with movie soundtracks) on a BluRay player? There should be no difference in that case between playing on a PC, CD player or BluRay player, but I guess the BluRay player has more expensive and dedicated circuitry for audio than a typical PC does. Not to mention the software / OS in a BluRay player is made only for one purpose, to play video and audio, so perhaps that helps as well.

Well I was meaning playing Blu Ray in either DTS-HD MA at 24-bit or even TrueHD Atmos audio at the same 24-bit, the sound is excellent if you play on a good home cinema receiver.  Songs and music in general sound much better but these are mixed into the movie so they come and go.  Blu Ray audio can be bought as people do, the sound when using 48Khz 24-bit sound will sound very good, not that I have any of these releases.  As long as there's good speakers present you can't go wrong but the price can be quite high to buy these.  Downloading from sources which are mainly 24-bit you're bound to get a good experience.  Just simply owning such equipment you do need lots of money and people can't always be spending all this too many problems in life, having to pay for their rent (Sky High fees) also having to feed their kids.  I'm sure there's plenty people and parents out there who would love to get into this kind of sound but realistic reality prevents them from doing so.

[soulcity]

The problem is that you feel so threatened by other points of view than your own

No... The "PRobLEm" is that I just don't care.

She's happy to what she has, and we should just leave it to that, and that is the point.

Thank you

What I don't like is when people can't admit their real motivations for doing things.

My motivations are that I'm a single mother with a mortgage, a huge bill for funeral expenses and a roof that needs repairs.
Honestly, I don't give a damn about upgrading my MP3 player, my phone, my computer or my stove.

As for my vinyl collection,
I like the look, feel and sound of old albums and I can make a little extra money selling the ones I don't want to keep.

[Moe]

I've downloaded a bunch of albums and several are in M4A format.  Unfortunately my really old MP3 player doesn't recognize M4A.

Is there something like Flac-Squisher that can do a bulk conversion for M4A to MP3? 

Thanks

I will remind everyone that the above is the topic of this thread. If you aren't responding directly to that question, do not post in this thread. Find another thread for your opinions, or you will find yourself unable to post at all.

[Fant0men]

https://mystiqapp.com/