Finally, you can take the audio from an mp3 and then add it to a video. And edit the sound by using a reverberation machine or tachometer or sound effects to change the sound. In the end it's different because it was edited by changing the fingerprint. Even in cases where you start with an mp3, then add it to the video and change the sound, then compare the mp3 with the edited audio embedded in the video. Unlike a typical WAV file, MP3 files are compressed and some of the audio information is lost in the process.
Unlike WAV files, there is no bit depth, only a bit rate (kbps, the amount of data per second of audio) to determine the conversion speed. In addition, AAC files are often slightly smaller than MP3s with comparable quality levels, which can make a difference when it comes to transferring or downloading large files. In the context of bitrate capabilities, AAC supports up to 48 channels, offering a wider range of audio reproduction compared to MP3, which supports up to 5.1 channels. However, let's say you take an mp3 and put it in a video without changing the sound in any way, then yes, it should be the same.
Platforms such as iTunes and Apple's YouTube use AAC as their default audio format, which says a lot about their quality and versatility. To maintain all the bandwidth through the iTunes MP3 encoder (and similar platforms), you must have a bit rate of 256 kbps or higher. Although MP3 is a very good format (as are newer and sometimes even better types of compression, such as AAC), I find it almost impossible to distinguish a 320 Kbps MP3 from a wav file of the same track in a good system, although some say so. Although MP3 files can't literally match WAV files in terms of sound quality, the average music buff won't notice any difference in overall listening.
Remember that while you can convert a WAV file to MP3, converting an MP3 to WAV won't improve the quality in any way. It should be noted that AAC is recognized for its higher coding accuracy for transient signals, a technical aspect that allows it to maintain sharper audio fidelity. The Windows version of an MP3 offers higher quality (similar to that of AAC), but the format is not as compatible as other formats. There are many online WAV to MP3 converters available, such as XLD for macOS and Exact Audio Copy for Windows.
So, whether you're on the AAC team, are betting on MP3 or are in favor of WAV, you should know that you can get the most out of your choice with the right tools and knowledge. Of course, the techniques used to minimize file size become much more sophisticated when audio is present in the file, and can reduce the size of the MP3 file massively compared to a WAV file. A simple example would be, instead of storing 220,000 24-bit samples to represent 5 seconds of silence at the beginning of a single channel of an audio file (which uses 176 KB of data, notes kilobytes, not kilobits), an MP3 algorithm could replace it with the statement “the value is zero here for 220,000 samples”, which uses much less data (actually, it doesn't do this, it has a “inaudible” flag and treats silence) as such, but only to illustrate the idea).Although AAC files are lossless, they offer better quality than MP3s (sample rates of up to 96 kHz), making them the ideal choice for many streaming platforms.
