Best 2019 option: convert wma to flac

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Yes, if your playback device/software is compatible with WMA, there's really no need to convert - but I understand that some of the Linux audio playback apps, in particular, don't support all WMA codecs, especially the "pro" variants. So converting your WMA files to FLAC is a good way of standardising your music collection, and also future-proofing your music collection.

is it critical in any sense
No, not really. You're dealing with a lossy encoding, so any good/better/best options would only be due to different decoding libraries ... but there's only one decoding library available for WMA - the official one from Microsoft.

dBpoweramp can convert anything
Yes, dBpoweramp is IMO the go-to application for audio conversion ... but it's not cheap.
Freeware alternatives will do the job just as well in this case, and I prefer to use the tried-and-true media player/converters - VLC or foobar2000:
Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN
Download foobar2000

I don't presently have foobar in front of me, but for VLC these are the steps:
Media > Convert / Save... > +Add > select your wma file > Convert / Save > Profile > Audio - FLAC > select Destination file > Start
 
Yes, reason for this was A+ (Mac) does not support wma, and as questionable as the original wav to wma conversion may have been, some of the music is invaluable to me.

Being leery of a less than optimal conversion, yet not wanting to buy anything for what is a one-off, I used athe trial version of Audacity.

Thanks for the replies and advice.
 
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Hanze Khronye, that's great you have a working solution. I just add a few comments for your information:

- Audacity is free, open-source software. The basic installation of Audacity does not include WMA support, since WMA is a patented technology, so for this you need to also install the FFmpeg Import/Export Library
Lame and FFmpeg libraries for Audacity - Free and Safe downloads - DO NOT CLICK GREEN DOWNLOAD BUTTONS

- Being free, there's no such thing as a "trial version". So it sounds to me that you may have used an unofficial installer package of Audacity+ffmpeg. I caution against this - that's how you get viruses. Always use official downloads -
Download | Audacity (R)

- Audacity is a full audio editor. It's overkill for straightforward format conversion, but that's OK.

- Audacity is no more "optimal" for WMA conversion than most other conversion software based on the ffmpeg libraries, and certainly no better than Foobar2000 (which is also free).
 
Agreed ... but again, please use don't get downloads from unofficial websites !!

...the official download site does not have a Windows executable available yet for this latest version.
I think the most reliable download of this (for Windows) would be FLAC v.1.3.3 win32 bundle from Rarewares

You are contradicting your own advice by advising download from an unofficial site.
I've been using Foobar for a long time. It's great. The encoder packs and components for Foobar should be obtained only from the official site, foobar2000.org to insure that they are fully compatible.

Besides that, the FLAC version on the official site encoder pack , IS v1.3.3
 
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Ah, that's good to know that the foobar2000 Free Encoder Pack includes flac v.1.3.3 - clearly that's the best option, then.
After checking the changelog, I wouldn't lose any sleep about still using v1.3.2 though.

And no one need be concerned about Rarewares - it's a well regarded source for media-related applications. I've been using it since 2005.
 
Good to know about Rarewares, thank you, that's a good track record.

Ah, that's good to know that the foobar2000 Free Encoder Pack includes flac v.1.3.3 - clearly that's the best option, then.
After checking the changelog, I wouldn't lose any sleep about still using v1.3.2 though.

And no one need be concerned about Rarewares - it's a well regarded source for media-related applications. I've been using it since 2005.
 
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