[Steggy]

On my computer, i have mp3 files, FLAC files, etc. I have mp3s ranging from 192ish and 320 kbps. 320 kbps obviously sounds great. i heard about flac a while ago from a friend and i got some. i have like queen, a lil trivium, muse, rem, etc. im not sure what player to use them for, so i use vlc. but when i play flac files, #1, the start off is really weird. kinda like you lose the first 2 seconds. #2, the sound seems a bit off. it sounds a little rattley and not as crisp. i use sennheiser 595s. is it my computers sound card (soundmax integrated digital hd audio on my thinkpad t61) or what? i should also mention my headphones are still fairly new and not that burned in. but still. the 320 kbps sounds great. it sounds BETTER than the flac....whats the deal?

and 1 ?, where do you guys get your FLAC from? i had to resort getting some from my friends, but idk where they get them from.

 

[krmathis]

Try a different player.
I have quite bad experience with VLC as an audio player myself.

Just import them from your own CD's. Or buy lossless files online, and transcode if they are not already encoded with FLAC.

 

[Steggy]

well id use another player, but i dont know of any good audio players which is why i resorted to vlc since it plays everything.
i remember a friend saying ge something before, but w/e.

do you have any audio player suggestions?

 

[sejarzo]

FLAC is what folks like me who actually pay for CD's use to store those recordings on our computers. There are also some sites that sell downloadable hi-rez 24 bit/96 kHz recordings that effectively must use lossless compression to reduce bandwidth.

Loss of the first couple of seconds of a cut is some sort of player app configuration issue.

In a comparison vs. 320 kbps mp3 versus FLAC, they should sound more or less the same, or to an experienced listener, the FLAC sounds better.

 

[monolith]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif On my computer, i have mp3 files, FLAC files, etc. I have mp3s ranging from 192ish and 320 kbps. 320 kbps obviously sounds great. i heard about flac a while ago from a friend and i got some. i have like queen, a lil trivium, muse, rem, etc. im not sure what player to use them for, so i use vlc. but when i play flac files, #1, the start off is really weird. kinda like you lose the first 2 seconds. #2, the sound seems a bit off. it sounds a little rattley and not as crisp. i use sennheiser 595s. is it my computers sound card (soundmax integrated digital hd audio on my thinkpad t61) or what? i should also mention my headphones are still fairly new and not that burned in. but still. the 320 kbps sounds great. it sounds BETTER than the flac....whats the deal? and 1 ?, where do you guys get your FLAC from? i had to resort getting some from my friends, but idk where they get them from.

That's most certainly some sort of software or ripping problem. If you're using a X61, I assume you're using Windows. If so, what's the problem with using Winamp or foobar to play the FLAC files?

Secondly, the files could have been ripped badly. I can imagine a high bitrate mp3 ripped securely with EAC sounding better than a FLAC ripped with something less thorough like Winamp or WMP.


As for your last question, I would imagine most people get their FLAC files either from the original CDs or downloaded from certain sites the discussion of which is not permitted here (due to their illegality).

 

[Steggy]

how do you do rip flac from your cds? i never saw the option on wmp so i assume its a different program that does it

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif well id use another player, but i dont know of any good audio players which is why i resorted to vlc since it plays everything. i remember a friend saying ge something before, but w/e. do you have any audio player suggestions?

Well, you could start by telling us which OS (Operating System) you run.
Cause there are several of them out there...

 

[Steggy]

lol i run vista (unfortunately)

i just gave foobar a spin and like it. it improved the quality of the flac a lot.

 

[LostOne.TR]

I don't know if this information is correct (or in the case it's correct, if it holds true to the current version of VLC). But I believe I've read that the volume in VLC is max'ed at 50% of the volume slider. Anything above is boosting the volume past clipping.

If it's true, that may explain why the Flac sounds bad.


As for ripping, EAC is quite a good choice. There's several guides around on how to setup EAC. EAC + lame (external) is the way I prefer to rip.

I'd offer more help, but I'm still re-installing most things to my laptop. And EAC + my cfg's for eac were lost.

 

[tjumper78]

yea. dont use vlc for audio files.
foobar2000 is always good. i use winamp with a plug-in that allows me to play flac.
for ripping your own cd to other formats, this is a great guide.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif lol i run vista (unfortunately) i just gave foobar a spin and like it. it improved the quality of the flac a lot.

Ok, foobar2000 is a safe choice for MS Windows.
...and nice to see that you get a different result after switching from VLC.

 

[Steggy]

thanks for all your help guys

 

[Manny Calavera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif lol i run vista (unfortunately) i just gave foobar a spin and like it. it improved the quality of the flac a lot.

Foobar is great,and once you get a few plug ins for it,like for artwork,etc,its quite the player.

 

[Kees]

Winamp plays FLAC perfectly.
Here you can find everything about FLAC.

 

[Bizzel]

VLC always gives me problems on XP. When a browser renders a webpage, VLC's audio output stops for a fraction of a second. Other players are fine.