Flac and Cd audio

[rightaway]

does flac really sound better than cd. i am a music nut and have been reading blogs about it. some people love it and others say it is a waste of time. can i convert my cd to flac or do i have to download flac files? is there something new that is better than than flac audio or is is that the highest quality there is? i'm confused.

[Ajani]

A regular FLAC file will sound exactly the same as a CD file (WAV)... However, if you are talking about high resolution FLAC files then you may hear an improvement... However, the most important thing IMO is to find the songs you like and then worry about formats after...

[Vasilis]

Just to add my 2c. There is a lot of talk of flacs sounding better than cd or this or that. If there is an improvement of flacs over any disc format is that the former does not involve a transport, i.e. the mechanical part that makes the disc spin. Whether the differences are audible or not depends on a variety of factors including what your sound system can deliver and how your speakers are placed. If you opt for flacs, and that leads me to believe that you will be streaming music from your pc or mac, do not rely on you computer's built in sound card as this is probably very basic, not doing justice to your music.

[Mygaffer]

There is no discerable difference between a FLAC file ripped from a CD or the original wav file on the cd. The FLAC file is just compressed but using a lossless algorithm. Basically it makes an exact copy of the music file, only it is between 50 and 60% smaller.

So to repeat, FLAC does NOT sound better than CD. Now, you can use FLAC for other sources besides CD and if someone ripped something like a DVD-A disc or SACD and then converted them to FLAC it might sound better than a CD ripped to FLAC.

Is that clear?

[Feanor]

does flac really sound better than cd. i am a music nut and have been reading blogs about it. some people love it and others say it is a waste of time. can i convert my cd to flac or do i have to download flac files? is there something new that is better than than flac audio or is is that the highest quality there is? i'm confused.

Inherently FLAC is identical to the CD from which it was made. If the FLAC sounds better, it is because of the rip accuracy and playback chain.

For example, if I play a CD using my CD player, then rip the CD and play the FLAC from my computer through my standalone DAC, the FLAC will sound better. Why? No mystery in my case: my standalone DAC is better than the DAC in my CD player.

There are other factors that might affect results. E.g. accuracy of the rip; bit-perfection of my computer music player; relative jitter level of my S/PDIF connection, and maybe a couple of other things. But fundamentally it's the rip + playback chain, not the FLAC format itself that might make the FLAC sound better.

[E-Stat]

is there something new that is better than than flac audio or is is that the highest quality there is? i'm confused.

You're confusing a digital format with its resolution. Free Lossless Audio Codec is simply a way to store a digital signal - of varying bit depths.. If you're asking what is better than Redbook CD resolution, there is SACD, 96/24, 192/24, and DXD (352/24).

rw

[Woochifer]

does flac really sound better than cd. i am a music nut and have been reading blogs about it. some people love it and others say it is a waste of time. can i convert my cd to flac or do i have to download flac files? is there something new that is better than than flac audio or is is that the highest quality there is? i'm confused.

If the original source is a CD, then FLAC does nothing more than reproduce the CD audio in its entirety. For any lossy or lossless format, the best it can do is present a transparent copy of the original source material.

If it "improves" the audio quality, then it has actually colored the sound, and is therefore not a true reproduction.

Otherwise, the only way that a FLAC file can sound better than the CD audio is if the FLAC file was made using an original analog source or higher res digital source, or if the source was simply played back using more optimized settings and/or playback equipment.