Short answer is no. Once the music files have been compressed into a lossy format, that is all the quality they will ever have. When a mp3 file is created, an algorithm removes data that is deemed unnecessary, hence the name "lossy". You can convert them back to a wav or a lossless format like flac or alac, but they will sound no better than the original mp3 files. If you want to get back to full quality, you must re-rip or re-purchase as a lossless format. I hope that helps, sorry.

I'm not too familiar with the Apple side, maybe Wes or JA can pipe in here. But AIFF, from what I gather, is similar to a WAV, so getting those may be overkill. Apple lossless should suffice, I would think. Paging JA or Wes.

Correct.

AIF or AIFF is a non-compressed, lossless format. It is like a WAV file.

AIF files can be played on both Macs and PC's.

AIF, WAV or a lossless compressed format like Apple lossless or FLAC is the way to get the best sound.

"Thank you for the info. Thus, I assume that when downloading music from sources like the iTunes store, I will need to download in a format such as AIFF. Correct?

"

Others gave you good info about AIFF, ALC (apple lossless), etc. Please note though that the iTunes store does NOT offer lossless or uncompressed downloads. Neither do any of the other major services (Rhapsody, etc), to the best of my knowledge. iTunes store is all in AAC, 128 kbps. I think they do have an option now for some songs at 256kbps, but it's still compressed.
To do lossless, rip CD's or other sources into iTunes. In "preferences/advanced", you can set the type of encoding and the bit rate you want when you import. iTunes lets you choose AAC, ALC, AIFF, or WAV.

i bought a wma file from Yahoo! Music and want to convert it to mp3 format so that I can download it to my IPod. iTunes cannot convert it to mp3 b/c it is copy protected.

After googling I found good converter - Melodycan Conversion speed and quality is very good. Also I noticed when playback window is partially obscured it doesn