FLAC has converted me ...

[Tomorrows]

OK, I was always really dismissive of audiophiles and the MP3 v FLAC debate, but goddamn, I just tried a CD in both and FLAC is sooooooooooo much better.

Bye bye mp3 (and HD space).

[Backslash]

of course FLAC is better.  lossless audio!

[EFISH]

what about wav?

[Tomorrows]

FLAC is basically a losslessly compressed WAV right?

Im going through all my fav CDs and getting them up in FLAC right now. Hot damn!

Starting with Whos Next.

[EFISH]

i just get my stuff in wav if i can because it goes into iTunes whicch is wehre i keep my stuff..

but on my backup hardrvie most of the stuff is in FLAC

[Tomorrows]

I got too many CDs to keep all my stuff in WAV. On my iTunes Ive got about 6000 songs from CDs alone.

[Genesis]

What's the big deal? I still prefer MP3s. Try encoding a track at 320kbps VBR and tell me the difference between that and FLAC. FLAC although being 'lossless' is about 10 times the size of the equivalent MP3.

People use FLAC only for the principle of the thing. Being 'lossless', they believe that they have preserved the original data in some way. I mean, what's the point of carrying all that data, if ur ears can't hear it anyway? 

[Tomorrows]

What's the big deal? I still prefer MP3s. Try encoding a track at 320kbps VBR and tell me the difference between that and FLAC. FLAC although being 'lossless' is about 10 times the size of the equivalent MP3.

People use FLAC only for the principle of the thing. Being 'lossless', they believe that they have preserved the original data in some way. I mean, what's the point of carrying all that data, if ur ears can't hear it anyway? 

At that bitrate its more like twice the size.

[Genesis]

At that bitrate its more like twice the size.

Here's a comparison:-

5.11 minute track:
MP3 (CD Quality VBR) - 7.03 MB
Flac (High Quality, 16bit) - 35.9 MB

You decide.

[mrlee]

FLAC is good, but it only works with either winamp or realmedia with the plug ins installed. windows media or itunes dont have those plug ins do they?

[Tomorrows]

FLAC is good, but it only works with either winamp or realmedia with the plug ins installed. windows media or itunes dont have those plug ins do they?

They have one for windows media but not iTunes I think.

[Walk]

In this age of 400 Gb drives, I'm surprised people still use mp3 for thier personal backups. It's really only useful for piracy due to bandwidth issues of the huge FLAC files.  Even then, ogg is better, but not seen much.

If you can't hear the difference, there are a few possibilities to examine. First, you might have hearing damage or are simply old. Second, you might have a cheap ass sound system (which makes sense, since it goes along with a cheap ass hard drive ). Third, you might be a metalhead who doesn't care about fidelity; hell, black metal is supposed to sound like shit. Of course, reason 3 is often a result of reason 1. 

[EFISH]

why was my replay about converting stuff deleted?

 

[Genesis]

In this age of 400 Gb drives, I'm surprised people still use mp3 for thier personal backups. It's really only useful for piracy due to bandwidth issues of the huge FLAC files.  Even then, ogg is better, but not seen much.

That's the whole point: BANDWIDTH. Downloading FLAC files is a real chore. I'm not saying there's no audio quality difference. What I meant was the quality/file size ratio just doesn't justify the use of FLAC. Not everybody has  a 2mbps leased DSL connection, you know...

[Walk]

Well, for legal backups, FLAC is much better.

[Genesis]

Well, for legal backups, FLAC is much better.

Sure. What do u think about the trading community's insistence on using FLAC? Like, um, "I'll trade only in FLAC, coz u know, like, I don't want to lose any precious bits of my favorite band..." 

[Mandy.]

Okay, so I've just downloaded a .flac file from Appetite for Collection... What do I use to open it?

[Tomorrows]

Download plugins from the section at the bottom of this page. I was able to plac FLAC in winamp without downloading any plugins though.

[Mandy.]

Thank you! 

[BLS-Pride]

Im new to all this shit.. Now. these flac files. I have heard them and they are pretty good.. Where do you find them? Torrents or are you converting your own media to flac and if so what program is needed? Any help would be awesome.