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Is FLAC worth it..?
Jul 30, 2011 at 12:09 AM Post #76 of 131
A big advantage I see to FLAC is having the original recording if you need to convert it to something else down the road.  Very useful if you have the space.

As for quality, I am new to this whole hi-fi audio, but I can hear only infinitesimal between FLAC and, say, 256Kbps MP3 from somewhere like Amazon MP3. 
 
Jul 30, 2011 at 3:49 AM Post #77 of 131
I can't hear a difference with my modest setup (Cowon J3 -> Sennheiser HD25-1 II). I do, however, think FLAC is worth "it". Why? Just because of peace of mind. A proper 2TB harddisk costs 65 euro, given that a FLAC album is about 300 MB, one can put about 6666.66666666666 (
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) albums on it. All these albums in mp3 would cost you about 600 GB of disk space (avaraging a 320 kbps mp3 album at 100 mb). A 650 GB harddisk cost about 56 euro. That's a 9 euro difference. The difference between Flac and Mp3 is 0.0013 euro's (0.0018 dollar) per album. Even though I can't hear any difference, to me, it's still worth it.
 
Jul 30, 2011 at 4:24 AM Post #78 of 131
Peace of mind really doesn't matter when you're filling a iphone or ipod with limited disk space, or when your itunes library is over 365 days worth of music. If you own the CD, there's no reason to use lossless.
 
Jul 30, 2011 at 11:42 AM Post #79 of 131
bigshot said:
Peace of mind really doesn't matter when you're filling a iphone or ipod with limited disk space, or when your itunes library is over 365 days worth of music. If you own the CD, there's no reason to use lossless.
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This is a great point. If you own the CD, you own the lossless recording and can rip it at any time. 
 
It's just always best to have a physical copy of something. 
 
Jul 30, 2011 at 4:39 PM Post #80 of 131
Of course, everyone here owns the CDs they are ripping, right? If they were ripping someone else's CDs to lossless, it would be wrong. Right?
 
Jul 30, 2011 at 10:44 PM Post #81 of 131


Quote:
bigshot said:
Peace of mind really doesn't matter when you're filling a iphone or ipod with limited disk space, or when your itunes library is over 365 days worth of music. If you own the CD, there's no reason to use lossless.
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That does make sense to an extent. When you're using an ipod I agree there really is no reason to use flac as you said the limited space plus the fact that an ipod really won't show much of a difference between flac and lossy formats as its not that revealing or the greatest sounding to begin with. Don't take that offensive as I own an ipod myself and I do enjoy it but not for lossless purposes. Now where I have to disagree with you is where saying there's no reason to use lossless. I also own an Sflo2 and I can clearly tell the difference between flac and mp3 on it as it is a very revealing DAP and shows the flaws of mp3 although higher bid rate mp3 don't sound too bad on it but its still there for me and noticeable. Not to mention I don't want to have to sift through hundreds of Cds when I can easily access them all on the fly through my hard drive (that saves me so much more time and less stress).
 
Jul 31, 2011 at 12:27 AM Post #82 of 131
Through line out, ipods sound just as good as CD players. I've done line level matched comparisons and I can't discern any difference at all. The headphone out is the only part of an ipod that can sound funky.

I've also done line level matched comparison between AIFF and AAC, and there is a point where the bitrate of AAC is high enough that there's no more artifacting. I use AAC 256 VBR and it sounds identical to my CDs, even on complex classical music.

If your MP3s don't sound like your FLACs, it is probably your encoder's fault. Use 320 LAME and the differences will disappear.
 
Jul 31, 2011 at 2:46 PM Post #83 of 131

lol I wonder what ipod you have because compared to my Sflo2 the ipod has nothing on it at all. I use the line out on the ipod and that don't even compare to the sflo2 through its headphone out. I can clearly hear the difference, and the sflo2 would be much closer to the sound that a good cd player can output than and ipod. Even an ipod with the imod still doesn't compete with an slfo2 sound quality wise. I must agree though that an ipod can sound significantly better through the line out. But I digress, as long as you are happy with your set up and you don't hear a difference then that is all that matters. But that doesn't mean that applies to everyone else though, just my 2 cents.
Quote:
bigshot said:
Through line out, ipods sound just as good as CD players. I've done line level matched comparisons and I can't discern any difference at all. The headphone out is the only part of an ipod that can sound funky.

I've also done line level matched comparison between AIFF and AAC, and there is a point where the bitrate of AAC is high enough that there's no more artifacting. I use AAC 256 VBR and it sounds identical to my CDs, even on complex classical music.

If your MP3s don't sound like your FLACs, it is probably your encoder's fault. Use 320 LAME and the differences will disappear.
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Jul 31, 2011 at 3:49 PM Post #84 of 131


Quote:
bjarnetv said:
if you dont rip in lossless you will regret it in the future
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So true. I lost an entire library of rips due to static electricity. I have spent sooooo much time ripping music.  3 times of ripping a 2000 CD collection. First time with MP3s, second time it fried, now this third time.  I learned my lesson, now I back up my library once a week.  I do enjoy FLAC immensely, but I currently am unemployed and can not afford a Sonos or Squeezebox and a DAC for it.  My CD player sounds way better than streaming through my Laptop headphone jack. 
 
Jul 31, 2011 at 4:29 PM Post #85 of 131
lee730 said:
lol I wonder what ipod you have because compared to my Sflo2 the ipod has nothing on it at all.
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That might be your honest impression. But the only way to really *know* exactly what sort of difference exists is to do direct A/B switching between line level matched sources. It takes two good preamps and half a day of calibration and setting up the files to test. It's a pain in the ass. That's why so few people do it. I like to avoid guessing. I'll put the time in once so I never have to wonder about it again. I have a lot of music to listen to, so I don't have a lot of time to parallel park my configuration. I want to find out what works and run with it.

The Wolfson DAC in the ipod classic is as good as the DAC in standalone CD players. When you play back direct rips in AAC on an ipod and compare them to the original CD in a CD player in a controlled test, there is no audible difference.
 
Aug 1, 2011 at 3:46 PM Post #88 of 131
The elephant in the corner was looking a bit lonely, so I thought I'd give him a little pet on the head.
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 2:49 AM Post #90 of 131
Ah yes, the long standing argument between 320kbps mp3 and Flac. Personally I have noticed no differences between the two. I personally choose mp3 because they take less space and are more compatible with everything. There might be a slight difference between the 2 but I don't notice any on my current gear. Just rip your music in 320kbps mp3 and be happy.
 
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