[fiascogarcia]

What format is the best? Flac?

IMO, from an SQ perspective, they all sound the same.  Flac and WAV are smaller size files if that makes a difference. Then just make sure your player accepts your chosen format.

 

[jchandler3]

What format is the best? Flac?

 
Some people will argue over the formats, but long story short: they're all lossless and should sound the same. 
 
Overly simplified:
 
WAV - Uncompressed lossless
AIFF - Uncompressed lossless, adds additional meta that WAV can't store
FLAC - Losslessly compressed for Windows
ALAC - Losslessly compressed for Mac
 
Personally, I store my whole collection in a losslessly compressed format (ALAC) so I get the full sound without all the additional hard disk requirement. There's really no data loss—think of zipping a folder. You unzip it and all the info is there. 

 

[Trey36]

Wow, I had no idea music could sound this good. This is my first 192/24 download and I truly hope HIDEF music takes off because after listening to this I will not be able to go back. 

 

[miceblue]

Wow, I had no idea music could sound this good. This is my first 192/24 download and I truly hope HIDEF music takes off because after listening to this I will not be able to go back. 

It's not the high definition that makes it sound good....
And this is exactly why I made my previous post: HD formats make no audible difference to the end listener.

 

[fiascogarcia]

  Wow, I had no idea music could sound this good. This is my first 192/24 download and I truly hope HIDEF music takes off because after listening to this I will not be able to go back. 

It's primarily the binaural recording that makes this music so sweet.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Anything that compresses uses software that makes up,data witha data recovery software type . So short answer is you loose your data even though you think you do not. I always download wav and store . And convert to flac to play. Also there is a flac without compression as well. That is what I use to play. I am not saying I can hear it but why would I remove data for space with music I just paid for In a loss less file .
Al

 

[Trey36]

Is there a reason for purchasing flagship headphones (over a $1000) if I can purchase uncompressed binaural recording? I uses my HD800 then my ED8. My jaw dropped listening to both.

 

[purk]

Will purchase this album later tonight.  I was hoping that Jude would spend more time talking about the Sony NW-ZX1 walkman.  I own the ZX1 personally and I've found it to be an excellent portable source (both sound quality, design, and features) especially with higher end CIEMs.  Given that the AK240 gets an entire episode dedicated to it, I sure hope that the ZX1 and other higher ends DAP will receive some more air time on the future episodes.

 

[fiascogarcia]

Is there a reason for purchasing flagship headphones (over a $1000) if I can purchase uncompressed binaural recording? I uses my HD800 then my ED8. My jaw dropped listening to both.

Limited binaural recordings available.

 

[xplosive]

Just bought the album, and now i can tell which headphones i own has the deepest depth and height.Thank you head fi for the special offer.

 

[TheGame]

What format is the best? Flac?

 
FLAC is obviously good, but I prefer .wav between the two

 

[TheGame]

Listen to some demos they have at HD Tracks, pretty impressive

 

[Mouldy Cheese]

Sounds incredible in terms of pure SQ even though it is not the style of music I like much. It'd be good evaluation music though for my phones.

 

[ruthieandjohn]

Just bought it with the discount code yesterday... Thank You!
 
Unfortunately, I got the "Apple Lossless Audio Format" (ALAF) at 96 kHz/24 bit, thinking "Apple" meant "iTunes" and I could listen to it on my iPod. It runs on iTunes on my PC but I get complaints that my iPod does not support that sampling rate. 
 
So I converted it to standard iTunes formant (256 kBps VBR, a lossy format that in past experiments I cannot distinguish from uncompressed).
 
Is there a lower bit rate uncompressed format I should use instead?  Can iTunes make that conversion?
 
Anyway, sounds absolutely revelational!  Good job, Cheskys!

 

[BB 808]

  Just bought it with the discount code yesterday... Thank You!
 
Unfortunately, I got the "Apple Lossless Audio Format" (ALAF) at 96 kHz/24 bit, thinking "Apple" meant "iTunes" and I could listen to it on my iPod. It runs on iTunes on my PC but I get complaints that my iPod does not support that sampling rate. 
 
So I converted it to standard iTunes formant (256 kBps VBR, a lossy format that in past experiments I cannot distinguish from uncompressed).
 
Is there a lower bit rate uncompressed format I should use instead?  Can iTunes make that conversion?
 
Anyway, sounds absolutely revelational!  Good job, Cheskys!

This might help you...
 

File Format	File Type	Associated With	Compatible with iPod?
MP3	Audio	Open*	Yes
AAC	Audio	Apple	Yes
WMA	Audio	Microsoft	No
AIFF**	Audio	Open	Yes
WAV**	Audio	Open	Yes
M4A	Audio	Apple	Yes
M4P	Audio	Apple	Yes
Ogg**	Audio	Open	No
FLAC	Audio	Open	No
RA/RAM	Audio	Real Networks	No
H.264	Video	Open	Yes
MP4	Video	Open	Yes
WMV	Video	Microsoft	No
MOV	Video	Apple	No

 
I can play FLAC files on my iPhone with the app AmpliFlac - HD Flac Player