Can you tell the difference between MP3s and M4As?

[GoingUp]

Just got a CD from a friend and its filled with M4A files... I'd never seen that extension before.. they all play fine in WMP, but I was curious if there is a real difference between the two.

Any program to convert M4As to mp3s?

 

[aplefka]

M4A is Apple.

 

[chcarnage]

M4A is a container format for AAC, AAC Apple Lossless, MP3, and also MP2, MP1, CELP (voices), TwinVQ (low bitrate), SAOL (MIDI).

I've found one freeware for Windows that assents to convert M4As.

http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html

 

[ElFenix]

m4h?

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
m4h?

mercenary for apples?

 

[Gurck]

mp3 is one of the worst sounding formats, m4a certainly can sound better. Personally prefer ogg though; imo it's the best sounding lossy format. It's also free and fairly widely supported. You don't want to transcode from one lossy format to another, btw - it'll sound worse than either would alone.

 

[GoingUp]

what is a lossy format?

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
what is a lossy format?

Where you lose information due to compression.
Like to make an mp3 file from a wav file, certain sounds are cut off, and basically you lose them forever. Converting back to a wav file again will not give you the file you started with, you have lost stuff.

If you then reconverted that to another format, you would lose more information, further degrading the quality.
Lossless is where you don't lose information, a bit like when you zip up a file, it makes it smaller, but you can reproduce the original.