Flac, AAC Lossless or some other lossless encoding....

[admin_exported]

Just wondering what folks are using in terms of lossless encoding...

Flac is nice in that it's 'open source'.

Having said that, the RedBook CD format isn't open source or free, but that hasn't stopped it from becoming a IEC standard, hence I'm less concerned with Apple AAC lossless being a propritary format.

Just wondering if I could get a vote or show of hands in terms of what people do and where they think the market is heading...

 

[Scissor_digits]

FLAC

 

[John Duncan]

Choose your equipment, then use a lossless format that works with it...

 

[Binman]

As above - choose your kit first.

I use FLAC as its natively supported by my Squeezebox. Also, its easy to convert from one lossless format to another, so don't sweat it.

 

[John Duncan]

Binman:Also, its easy to convert from one lossless format to another, so don't sweat it

 

[Lee H]

Flac for me, then convert on the fly if I need to for a portable device

 

[professorhat]

As others have said, it comes down to what you're using. Since I'm entirely Apple based, FLAC would be no good to me and I use Apple Lossless.

 

[Fisherking 145]

I agree with the others, it's down to what you need it for, but nothing to worry yourself about as it's easy to transcode to another format. I would strongly recommend dbPoweramp, but if you are only going to use Apple devices, then iTunes wiil be fine.

 

[Anonymous]

Just to show how close the 2 formats are:

Ripping cd to

ALAC takes 2min42, 489MB (Itunes,dbpoweramp both same)

FLAC takes 2min37, 483MB (dbpoweramp)

WAV takes 2min37, 751MB (dbpoweramp)

So Apple only users - ALAC, rest of world FLAC - purely down to wider format support.

The quality,size,ripping speed are practically identical.The quality on both is of course lossless.

 

[kevinJ]

I use FLAC too.
EAC to rip my cds, Mediamonkey to play the music.

 

[Bartdude]

There is an app called FLAC Player which costs £5.99 from the Apple Store which allows you to store and play Flac files on the iPod and it works brilliantly !

 

[Red Dragon]

Bartdude:There is an app called FLAC Player which costs £5.99 from the Apple Store which allows you to store and play Flac files on the iPod and it works brilliantly !

and will it allow flac files to be played through iTunes ? Now that would be handy...

 

[DavieCee]

Apparently the next version of OSX will allow the use of Apps on all machines, so yes, soon (if you are on a Mac platform).

 

[Lee H]

For show of hands purposes, Flac. I've used a variety of different mobile music players so the ability to transcode does it for me. Now, to look in to this flac player for the iPhone!

 

[Anonymous]

I know this is slightly off-topic, but why don't iTunes offer downloads in lossless? Is it just about file size?

 

[Anonymous]

FLAC

 

[Anonymous]

FLAC for main usage and master archive/backup. gives one the most options and supports tagging.

DBpoweramp for converting to MP3/4 320s or aac/alac for ipods etc.

Tagging with Media Monkey. Easy.

All you need.

 

[manicm]

I say FLAC +1 as well. Avoid ALAC.

 

[BillDay66]

terryhickmott:I know this is slightly off-topic, but why don't iTunes offer downloads in lossless? Is it just about file size?.

File size and that the vast majority of their customers couldnt care less / dont understand the difference.

 

[BillDay66]

manicm:

I say FLAC +1 as well. Avoid ALAC.

Really dont understand this?, As said previously, pick the format that suits your hardware - in terms of SQ they are all identical and should your hardware change, can be converted back and forth between different formats with very little effort and no SQ loss.

 

[manicm]

BillDay66:manicm:

I say FLAC +1 as well. Avoid ALAC.

Really dont understand this?, As said previously, pick the format that suits your hardware - in terms of SQ they are all identical and should your hardware change, can be converted back and forth between different formats with very little effort and no SQ loss.

ALAC consistently sounds worse than other lossless formats to my ears. Whether that is down to iTunes or other players/renderers I do not know.

 

[Anonymous]

manicm:BillDay66:manicm:
I say FLAC +1 as well. Avoid ALAC.

Really dont understand this?, As said previously, pick the format that suits your hardware - in terms of SQ they are all identical and should your hardware change, can be converted back and forth between different formats with very little effort and no SQ loss.

ALAC consistently sounds worse than other lossless formats to my ears. Whether that is down to iTunes or other players/renderers I do not know.How can it sound worse? It uses the same algorithm as FLAC, and actually produces files a smidge larger, which is all to the good. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a blind test.

I might as well say "avoid FLAC". It carries as much weight as your somewhat baseless pronouncement. I don't mean that to be rude, I just can't find another way to put it.

 

[manicm]

Grottyash:manicm:BillDay66:manicm:

I say FLAC +1 as well. Avoid ALAC.

Really dont understand this?, As said previously, pick the format that suits your hardware - in terms of SQ they are all identical and should your hardware change, can be converted back and forth between different formats with very little effort and no SQ loss.

ALAC consistently sounds worse than other lossless formats to my ears. Whether that is down to iTunes or other players/renderers I do not know.How can it sound worse? It uses the same algorithm as FLAC, and actually produces files a smidge larger, which is all to the good. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a blind test.

I might as well say "avoid FLAC". It carries as much weight as your somewhat baseless pronouncement. I don't mean that to be rude, I just can't find another way to put it.

Read my last sentence.

 

[Anonymous]

I ended up using eac to rip my cds losslessly into Flac.

I use FooBar on my computer to get bit perfect output. (Harder to configure in ITunes).

I ran winamp to convert flac to 320 kbps mp3s.

Squeezebox sees only the Flac folder.

iTunes, Zune, Windows Media player see the mp3 folder.

I drop files directly into foobar from my file system.