Flac Vs Mp3 Hype ?

[chebby]

Sorry I didn't realise the term "critical" bothered you so much.

It amuses me.

You are obviously very good at it.

 

[tonky]

I bet you're a great dad dancer (uncritical listening of course)

tonky

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I think it's hype as your paying for the extra frequencies that your ears can not pick up unless your 10year old . All music is compressed to some degree so I still think CDs are still the way to go

 

[chebby]

I bet you're a great dad dancer (uncritical listening of course)

tonky

I have medals.

 

[Dom]

With AAC CBR there is a 512Kbps output, which creates files at FLAC size.

Happy to be proven wrong, but doesn't 512kbps only apply to multi-channel use with 320kbps being the maximum for stereo. Also, as lossless has the same audio bitrate as CD, which (again, happy to be proven wrong) would be 2 channels at 16 bits and 44.1kHz = 1,411.2kbps - still leaves a fair bit of compression at 512k. I would have thought ALAC was the codec of choice for anyone with an Apple orientation looking for FLAC sized files.

The CBR 512k AAC is two channel stereo, thats means 256k per channel. So its transparent. My question is why bother, if FLAC/ALAC is lossless and very similar size.

AAC VBR looks like it has a maximum width of 512k. This is confirmed as it occasionally goes over 400k on some of music.

Thankfully it also goes down to 50k too, and 3k for silence. Thats why I like AAC.

FLAC is VBR lossless.

 

[The_Lhc]

I think it's hype as your paying for the extra frequencies that your ears can not pick up unless your 10year old . All music is compressed to some degree  so I still think CDs are still the way to go 

I think you're confusing 24-bit audio with 16/44 flac, which is CD quality. There are no "extra frequencies" with 16/44 flac files.

 

[Dom]

I think it's hype as your paying for the extra frequencies that your ears can not pick up unless your 10year old . All music is compressed to some degree so I still think CDs are still the way to go

I think you're confusing 24-bit audio with 16/44 flac, which is CD quality. There are no "extra frequencies" with 16/44 flac files.

Yes, those extra frequencies on our DAC's are for our pets.

*yes3*

 

[Andrewjvt]

Playing flac files of ripped cds Should sound identical to a cd.

Mp3 is compressed. Flac is loseless format (although uses compression)
Some people on here seem to think (based on some comments) that playing flac through a dac is somehow inferior to using a cd player

Some people cant hear difference between the 2 sometimes.

 

[TomSawyer]

I think it's hype as your paying for the extra frequencies that your ears can not pick up unless your 10year old . All music is compressed to some degree so I still think CDs are still the way to go

I think you're confusing 24-bit audio with 16/44 flac, which is CD quality. There are no "extra frequencies" with 16/44 flac files.

Potentially, also confusing level compression in the mix ("all music is compressed to some degree") with data compression?

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I just read something on the Internet about flac and MP3 files that you would not be able to hear the difference between the 2 files if you played both files and the people that can tell a flac file from an MP3 file are taking poo as they are justifying the extra expense as you never see a musician or anyone who works with music all day who's professional come on here and say which is best for sound quality.

 

[BigH]

I just read something on the Internet about flac and MP3 files that you would not be able to hear the difference between the 2 files if you played both files and the people that can tell a flac file from an MP3 file are taking poo as they are justifying the extra expense as you never see a musician or anyone who works with music all day who's professional come on here and say which is best for sound quality.

Do a test there are plenty online. Tidal have one. Quite a few people can't tell the difference. System and volume I think affect the outcome.

 

[tino]

These days it makes more sense to rip and archive in a lossless format. Subsequently you can choose whether to those play those original rips or create a separate library (derived from your lossless master) in the lossy format of your choice to suit your ears / equipment / device memory. I've created a 320K MP3 library for home and 160K one for mobile use. They sound pretty good.

 

[manicm]

I just read something on the Internet about flac and MP3 files that you would not be able to hear the difference between the 2 files if you played  both files and the people that can tell a flac file from an MP3 file are taking poo as they are justifying the extra expense as you never see a musician or anyone who works with music all day who's professional come on here and say which is best for sound quality.

Mp3s are heavily dependent on the encoder, imo the Fraunhofer was the best, but the later versions of the popular Lame are rubbish to my ears.

 

[tonky]

I just read something on the Internet about flac and MP3 files that you would not be able to hear the difference between the 2 files if you played both files and the people that can tell a flac file from an MP3 file are taking poo as they are justifying the extra expense as you never see a musician or anyone who works with music all day who's professional come on here and say which is best for sound quality.

Not quite sure what you are trying to say BS25. I personally would shy away from " I just read something on the internet" type coments - Now that's a different kind of BS!. Make sure you hear it for yourself. With the quality of equipment you possess I am sure you would hear the difference between 256/320 kbps mp3s and lossless files. It's not that hard to hear the difference.

Don't get me wrong - I am not rubbishing mp3 files - or the people . who use/listen to them. It's a great way of storing a lot of good music in a small amount of storage space. The sound quality is good. But if I play a track I know from Spotify and then play the same track streamed from my hard drive -lossless - it's a more immediate up front and dynamic piece of music. - I don't have "golden ears".. I wish I had they're big enough - I'd be worth a few bob!

tonky

 

[Frank Harvey]

So is Flac really that much better than high quality Mp3 file ?

What difference do you hear if anything.

What do you use iTunes ?

Not read the thread as there's too many to catch up on. In my opinion it depends on the system you have. A revealing enough system will show you the difference between the files. I find electronic music doesn't immediately show any major differences, but rock stuff like Foo Fighters or Nirvana does.