[dk123]

I'm interested in hearing some opinions on how significant the difference in sound quality is with FLAC vs alt preset extreme/standard with LAME vbr.

I'm trying to decide on a DAP, and one consideration is whether to buy the iaudio x5 so that I can use FLAC, as opposed to something like the the Sony HD5.

I'm planning to do some listening tests on my own, but I am really curious whether FLAC is the way to go. So far, I have only compaired alt-preset-standard with the original source material, and I think the differences are pretty subtle, but not completely unnoticeable.

Thanks.

 

[gshan]

I think personal listening tests are the way to go. I did a comparison with this myself, and IMO it means nothing when listening outside of the house. Ambience owns the detail and focus.

 

[elnero]

Technically speaking FLAC is lossless so there shouldn't be any quality loss between it and a CD while mp3 is lossy so there will be a loss in quality but how much of a difference that makes is very subjective.

My advice would be to try it yourself. Encode using both FLAC and LAME, you could even try various LAME settings to see what differences you personally feel you can hear. You can use foobar for some form of blind testing as well, I've never tried it personally but I know it can be done. I personally feel that A/B testing is ok in one sense but longer term testing can show differences as well but again that's subjective and even if you can hear differences are they big enough to justify the extra space?

 

[Edwood]

Try listening to music with a lot of cymbals. Particulary long cymbal strikes. MP3's compression gives it a more sibilant, somewhat "warbley" sound.

Oh, and it will be easier to hear with better headphones.

But for on the move, FLAC is probably a waste of space for a portable.

-Ed

 

[BillC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood But for on the move, FLAC is probably a waste of space for a portable. -Ed

While I agree with that statement, FLAC support was still a big factor for me. I've got a pretty large CD collection and I only want to rip these once - so, I'm ripping them to FLAC. Until I bought the X5 that meant that I had to convert from FLAC to MP3 before I could put them on my DAP - what a pain. And even encoded as FLAC, 30 GB holds a lot of tunes.

 

[blessingx]

Well depending on the players you're not just limited to FLAC and MP3. You need to add at least AAC, Vorbis and ATRAC to the mix.

That said I think the difference while may be significant elsewhere (depending on your ears and equipment), decreases dramatically on DAPs. I just don't think the dacs are up to it. Add external environments and the gap shrinks even more.

 

[notnormal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillC Until I bought the X5 that meant that I had to convert from FLAC to MP3 before I could put them on my DAP - what a pain.

Ever tried using foobar2000. Simply select the flac files or playlist, select convert to lame (aps,ape,aps) and the output directory. After conversion, the filenames appears in the format you want them to, along with all the tags, replaygaining, etc. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Try listening to music with a lot of cymbals. Particulary long cymbal strikes. MP3's compression gives it a more sibilant, somewhat "warbley" sound. -Ed

YES!!!! That is exactly how I know if the MP3 was (un)properly encoded.
FLAC is a waste of space but the sound is great.

 

[LFF]

On the above note, try also to listen to audience applauses. MP3 seems to beat hand applause over with a club. Just another "quality test" to put your music through.

 

[BillC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by notnormal Ever tried using foobar2000. Simply select the flac files or playlist, select convert to lame (aps,ape,aps) and the output directory. After conversion, the filenames appears in the format you want them to, along with all the tags, replaygaining, etc. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Despite all the raves about foobar I haven't installed it and tried it yet. But nothing's simpler than just doing a drag and drop to the player

 

[redshifter]

fast strumming acoustic guitar with a minimum of processing is another great codec test case. a poor codec will make it sound like it is being fed through a flanger.

i have my music collection ripped at rock=vbr ape and classical=flac. at least with classical i noticed a big quality hit with vbr ape vs. uncompressed or flac. the only drawback with flac on my cowon iaudio m3 is the click and gap between tracks.

 

[notnormal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillC Despite all the raves about foobar I haven't installed it and tried it yet. But nothing's simpler than just doing a drag and drop to the player

True. If you have the space then just stick to flac. It does have the advantage of being gapless and lossless.

 

[Audiophiliac]

MP3's are exactly like porn, and you can also have way more of them that way, too, since you don't need to have a problem with that in music.
FLAC still sounds noisier from being decompressed first. Only WAV files from solid state can make you the slacker you're supposed to be being while you listen, suckers.

How can any of you have space issues anymore, anyways? On a phone, the biggest memory card is cheap, on a pc, a bigger usb ssd is cheaper. Even on a phone, you still have streaming services, unless you're subway isn't hooked up with your data provider yet. On unsupported subway systems is the only time space can be an issue, even though your space could still hold over a 24 hrs worth of 96kbps, and you would just need to copy/replace from main pc before your next trip, when you need new. Or roaming outside of your data provider's coverage, ok then.

Only WAV files could possibly be exact playback of the original copy. But don't forget, although digital skips the recording medium, it records only timeless samples to be played back over time. Garbage, nobody will care about people anymore with digital. Criminal rap fans have it easy, trying not to have to. The other way around, like me, are the ones who have it sad. The good people are all keeping what it actually is a secret, anyways.

Lucky for this audience that you're audiophiles, and that means developing a preference for only having to care about which sub actually sounds best will keep you from truly thinking it is the criminal aspect of rappers, anyhow. You'll need the professor's roles to matter for that. Thank you for that!

 

[goodvibes]

 

[goodvibes]

I almost only use WAV at home unless streaming Qobuz, I think, for the reasons stated above, lol, but don't mind FLAC on the go. It's just that space is cheap, I don't mind folder view and I can clearly here the difference in the type of home kit I'm accustomed to so I tend to use wav everywhere. Once decompressed to wav, obviously, FLAC is a great container to download etc. but I find real time decompression to be slightly less incisive/black/contrasty etc. I think it's good for streaming services due to bandwidth and them tending to be slightly bright anyway,