FLAC and MP3

rolypablo · Post by **rolypablo** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:04 pm

Just downloaded 'In A Beautiful Place Out in the Country' EP in FLAC. Don't worry, i have the CD at home... I'm just experimenting here. I want to know if there is a big difference between the 2 file formats when listening to music digitally. It's sounding better, I must say, but only slightly. Maybe because I'm using earphones, I'll need to compare the two on decent speakers.

What do others think about the different formats? What do you use to play FLAC files and do you think it's worth getting a hold of them for the very best albums in your collection?

Goiter Sanchez · Post by **Goiter Sanchez** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:12 pm

My entire digital collection is .flac (which is a losslessly compressed .wav file) and I use a player called Foobar2000 to listen to them. I think Winamp can play .flac as well.
Music which occurs in a fairly scant or narrow frequency band (like a lot of drone or ambient music) won't noticeably benefit from lossless compression as much as something that has a lot of frequencies like, say, most Autechre albums where much of the audible band is being used.

.mp3s cut frequencies that we are less likely to perceive in the top and bottom end of the frequency spectra; the lower the encoded kbps of the .mp3, the more frequencies have been removed. For me it starts to become quite noticeable around 192kbps or lower.

rolypablo · Post by **rolypablo** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:52 pm

I downloaded a plugin for itunes called Fluke which lets me play Flac files there. Makes sense as all my other music is there.

I'll be sure to try it out with something like Autechre then. Cheers for the info.

thedisavowed · Post by **thedisavowed** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:08 am

For my part, FLAC tends to be an archival format. 99.9% percent of my music listening happens on my iPod, and truthfully I cannot tell 192kbps and up from the original.

I used to have my iPod hacked with some software called Rockbox that allowed me to listen to flac files, but came to realize that it's senseless to do that if you're generally listening on cheap earbuds in public places.

I guess the format really depends on the setting and what you're listening to.

Jonny_P · Post by **Jonny_P** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:47 am

i use fluke with my itunes as well but i'm very selective when it comes to what i own in that format. it's awkward on itunes because you can't change the tags, which really irritate me. also they aren't playable on my ipod which i think really just SUCKS. i converted most of my flac library to aac, but i'll still keep a few album copies in flac to listen to with these banging bose headphones i have. i feel disappointed though that i can't really tell the difference between flac and a 128 though.

Goiter Sanchez · Post by **Goiter Sanchez** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:22 am

There must be an alternative to an iPod out there that allows more file formats to be played...

Saakki · Post by **Saakki** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:37 am

I use CopyTrans instead of iTunes. iPod plays WAV but not FLAC and yeah I hate that it doesnt play FLAC though 320 kbps mp3 is enough for me when I'm hiking/biking etc. At home I listen to FLAC but most huge collection of hard to find releases are in mp3 format.

Guido · Post by **Guido** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:26 pm

If you can't hear the difference between 192/256kbit mp3 and flac the consideration of using the latter is completely pointless and its use redundant and undesirable (file sizes).

sevenELIXIR · Post by **sevenELIXIR** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:17 pm

winamp all the way

dp · Post by dp » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:00 am

it takes up a lot of hard drive space, but I converted all of my CD's to FLAC (for home listening) and then converted the FLAC's to 320/kbps MP3 (for iPod listening). i have a 1TB external HDD devoted to FLAC, and a 500GB external HDD devoted to MP3. it's a system that works really well for me and if you have the means I highly recommend it.

never settle for anything lower than 320/kbps. there is no reason not to.