[DoIFeelLucky]

I'm just fiddling around with this dbPowerAMP program and have a few more questions. When converting .flac to .wav I get the following options. Which should I select for optimal sound performance?

- 8 bit, 16 bit (CD), 24 bit (DVD), or bits as source

- 8000hz all the way up to 192000hz. Out beside 44100hz it says CD.

I'd guess and say 16bit, 44100hz, but is there a combination I can choose that will increase the sound quality?

44100Hz/16bit/stereo is the sampling rate, bit depth, and number of channels used for audio CDs, as defined by the Red Book standard. You won't be able to burn an audio CD at any other sampling rate or bit depth.

As for changing the sampling rate/bit depth, DON'T! If you downsample to a lower setting, you will lose quality, naturally. If you upsample to a higher setting, you won't magically gain quality - you are always limited by the quality of the source file.

Here - the frequency response (range of frequency of sound reproduced) of a digital recording is equal to half of the sampling rate. So for 44100Hz, you get a frequency response up to 22050Hz. If you upsample to something higher, no data exists for any frequencies higher than 22050Hz, so you won't gain frequencies that don't even exist in the source file. (Hell, if we could do that, everyone would know about it, and it would be the ultimate form of audio compression!) Same with bit depth... if you convert to a higher bit depth, you add a greater possible degree of precision to the dynamics (volume) of the sound, but the values are the same; again, you're limited by your source.

And really, due to the calculations, rounding, and interpolation that is done in these format conversions, you'll probably introduce a tiny bit of distortion if you convert to a higher setting.

In conclusion, for burning to CD, always use 44100/16. If you are converting files for PC playback, leave the sampling rate and bit depth unchanged.