[JosephKim]

Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that lossless audio files such as .flac give you a better sound quality. When I downloaded some .flac files, the volume was very low and the quality not good. Am I wrong about the quality?

 

[Head Injury]

Where did you "download" these? What are you playing them with? Are they ReplayGained? What CD is it? Do you have a new louder remaster and are the FLAC perhaps from an original or older remaster?

 

[plonter]

Quote:

Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that lossless audio files such as .flac give you a better sound quality. When I downloaded some .flac files, the volume was very low and the quality not good. Am I wrong about the quality?

1.buy cd's you like
2.rip them in flac
3.enjoy!

 

[SDDL-UP]

As plonter stated, make sure you get your FLAC files from a valid source.  FLAC files can be made from an MP3 or other lower quality source.  Buy the CD, own the CD, love the CD, and rip them all to FLAC, then MP3 or whatever for your enjoyment!

 

[pmc64]

was it a vinyl rip of something? I've listened to one of those before and it was really low.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

As plonter stated, make sure you get your FLAC files from a valid source.  FLAC files can be made from an MP3 or other lower quality source.  Buy the CD, own the CD, love the CD, and rip them all to FLAC, then MP3 or whatever for your enjoyment!

yep..we are paying for the gear, so why shouldn't we  pay for the music as well?

 

[Slogra]

Of course lossless is always perfect quality. Which means it is exactly the same as the source file. In this case the source is appearantly different than the lossy file you compared it to. So this is not a good comparison.
 
And about the low volume. Low volume will not cause bad quality. In fact it is usually much better quality than high volume. Read more about this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
 
Of course there can be other reasons why the quality is not good.

 

[ROBSCIX]

The idea that FLAC's are perfect copies is not always true.  You get some idiots that convert lossy files to FLAC's and think they have originals again.  Just another reason to avoid download sites.
 
If you spend the time and encode them yourself to FLAC then you can be assured they are of perfect 1:1 bit exact copies.  As the saying goes "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself"
 
Buy the CD, encode it for your collection and put the CD's away for backups.

 

[plonter]

also,there is nothing more fun than listening to your own rips...isn't it?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

also,there is something more fun about listening to your own rips...isn't it?

Yes, and as I mentioned when you do them yourself you can ensure they are done correctly.
Put your CD's away for backups.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

The idea that FLAC's are perfect copies is not always true.  You get some idiots that convert lossy files to FLAC's and think they have originals again.  Just another reason to avoid download sites.

 
But then FLAC is still a perfect copy!
Cause it is lossless to the source audio data fed into it. If that source audio data is lossy to its source audio data is a different matter entirely.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

 
But then FLAC is still a perfect copy!
Cause it is lossless to the source audio data fed into it. If that source audio data is lossy to its source audio data is a different matter entirely.

good point..never thought of it like this.
 

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
But then FLAC is still a perfect copy!
Cause it is lossless to the source audio data fed into it. If that source audio data is lossy to its source audio data is a different matter entirely.

Seriously, would you take a 640x480 jpg off a 10 year old digi cam, convert it png of tiff and expect it to increase in quality.  Similarly, zipping and unzipping some crappy fanfic you may have wrote, will not turn it into a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, despite the lossless nature of the compression.
 
Garbage in, garbage out.
 
Digital theory and information theory become more important every single day.  I blame the educational system.  Curriculums aren't updated fast enough.  /rant

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Seriously, would you take a 640x480 jpg off a 10 year old digi cam, convert it png of tiff and expect it to increase in quality.  Similarly, zipping and unzipping some crappy fanfic you may have wrote, will not turn it into a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, despite the lossless nature of the compression.
 
Garbage in, garbage out.
 
Digital theory and information theory become more important every single day.  I blame the educational system.  Curriculums aren't updated fast enough.  /rant

I might be misunderstanding your post. But that's not what krmathis or the OP suggested would happen at all.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

I might be misunderstanding your post. But that's not what krmathis or the OP suggested would happen at all.

I was attempting to reiterate how krmathis was correct by exaggerating for comedic effect.  Sorry if I was misunderstood, or if my sense of humor is just too odd.