FLAC or WAV?

[admin_exported]

Hello,

I am about to rip some of my favourite CDs onto my laptop using EAC .

I was wondering what file format would give the most accurate quality to the original CD out of FLAC or WAV lossless, or is another format better?

 

[fatboyslimfast]

In theory, all the lossless formats are exactly that - lossless. Meaning that the actually format shouldn't sound any different. To make absolutely sure however you would have to use true WAV (i.e. not compressed at all).

FWIW, I use the Apple lossless (as I use my PC based system with itunes and airport expresses around the house) and cannot tell the difference between that and uncompressed WAV.

 

[mattc76]

[quote user="MENISCUS"]

Hello,

I am about to rip some of my favourite CDs onto my laptop using EAC .

I was wondering what file format would give the most accurate quality to the original CD out of FLAC or WAV lossless, or is another format better?

[/quote]

Haven't we just had this discussion!?

The FLAC file encoded from the WAV (ripped with EAC) will sound IDENTICAL in every possible way.

Someone somewhere ripped a cd to wav with eac which generated a CRC code. Then compressed it to FLAC, then decompressed it back to WAV and generated a new CRC code which was identical - proving that NO information was lost in the encoding/decoding process. Therefore FLAC all the way. (Or apple lossless if you fancy)

Lossless IS lossless.

FLAC / apple lossless are better than wav in other ways though: smaller files so less disk space, FLAC's and apple lossless can be tagged with album/track/artist info AND album art etc therefore archiving is much easier etc - WAV's cannot

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks FBSF, I will do a comparison, with the same CD on both formats and see what one is better, I suspect as you say that I will not tell the difference ..........

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="mattc76"]Lossless IS lossless.

[/quote]

Just a query as a point of interest; I seem to remember seeing an option, maybe on Windows Media Player (probably an older version) referring to a encoding option that was "mathematically lossless". What's that and how does it work?

 

[fr0g]

[quote user="tractorboy"][quote user="mattc76"]Lossless IS lossless.

[/quote]

Just a query as a point of interest; I seem to remember seeing an option, maybe on Windows Media Player (probably an older version) referring to a encoding option that was "mathematically lossless". What's that and how does it work?[/quote]

It just means lossless. It would be WMA lossless. It is exactly the same as when you get a .ZIP file with data in it. You put the data (digital music is no more than data) through a mathematical algorithm that reduces the size, by squeezing bits of like data together. The decoding algorithm does the opposite (opens the 'zip' file and extracts the WAV (PCM)). With FLAC / Apple lossless / APE / ALAC / WMA lossless etc NO data is lost.

 

[John Duncan]

Might depend on your music player software as to which lossless format to use - iTunes doesn't support FLAC for example, I hear, without a plugin. Don't take my word for it, but some research may be required based on your preference.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes thanks John and everyone, I am using Foobar 2000, and FLAC file seems to be the way to go for me personally............

 

[fr0g]

[quote user="MENISCUS"]
Yes thanks John and everyone, I am using Foobar 2000, and FLAC file seems to be the way to go for me personally............

[/quote]
If you're running foobar it's worth getting hold of Asio4all and using foobars plugin too. Definite improvement to be had.

 

[Anonymous]

If you have a huge hard drive (and if you think about it they are quite cheap these days) you may as well stay uncompressed.

The only dissadvantage is you can't embed tags in wav's.

 

[Anonymous]

When ripping my own cd's (with iTunes on my Mac) I always choose the AIFF encoder. Big hard drives are cheap these days so compression is simply not a concern.

I also purchase quite a bit of music on-line and am finding FLAC to be very popular. ITunes doesn't support it, but I am using a Squezebox so it really is not a concern.

 

[Anonymous]

If god meant for music to be on computers he would have made very small intuitive computers with uncomfortable headphones that fit it your pocket and hold thousands of songs.. oh wait.