By default yes — 48 kHz MP3 stays 48 kHz in AAC. If you need to downsample for compatibility (96 kHz → 44.1 kHz for CD burning), the sample-rate option applies high-quality resampling in the same encode pass.
Same-codec re-mux: 10 to 30 seconds. Re-encode to a different codec: typically 10 to 20% of source duration, so a 1-hour MP3 → AAC finishes in 6 to 12 minutes. Batch jobs parallelize across workers for further speedups.
Why is the AAC louder or quieter than the MP3 source?
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No automatic gain change happens unless you enable the normalize option. If you observe a level change, your audio player or media library is likely applying ReplayGain or per-track normalization on playback — not us. Disable that to hear the true AAC levels.