Downloading & Converting Music

Max, You're correct except that, with MP3s, information is actually discarded during the creation of the MP3. So, it's not that it just can't be retrieved, it's no longer there. Conversion to WAV or FLAC format will only contain the information that remains in the MP3. As you say, the high quality sites do have lossless downloads available but most of the mainstream sites like iTunes and Amazon (currently) only offer lossy formats. There may be other non-audiophile sites that offer lossless downloads but I have not heard of them. Maybe someone else will jump in with more information. Dick

you can convert back but with lost information during MP3 conversion. portable iplayers now have a capability of playing lossless formats for small purchase price of an application. there are many sites that have lossless downloads

I googled 'lossless downloads' and found the following link to a list of such sites: http://www.head-fi.org/t/558074/where-to-download-lossless-music

I know nothing about the sites listed.

MP3 eliminates some data, so it cannot be recovered to make a "clean" .wav file. I recommend ripping CDs with dbpoweramp on PC or XLD on Mac to .wav format and ALWAYS use Accurate Rip to verify it (option on dbpoweramp).

Some popular download sites are:

HDtracks
2L
highdeftapetransfers.com

Most of these have FLAC, so you can convert it back to .wav using dbpoweramp or XLD. .wav sounds better.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio