I just recently heard about FLAC and other high-resolution audio files that supposedly sound better than traditional MP3 and similar files due to them not being compressed at all or the same way as MP3 files allowing for more detail in the sound.

I'm obviously fairly ignorant about this so does anyone have any experience with it? Is there a noticeable difference and what would I need in order to be able to play it over a traditional stereo receiver? Do I need a special player or would it work with an ipod and mini-rca cable?

All the good mp3 files originate from source; analog.

Casual listening flac and 320 mp3 probably won't be noticed. If you have a better system and are listening you'll hear the difference.

There is a better source for audio, but you have to turn it over to hear the other side.

FLAC files cannot be played on an iPod. iTunes default download settings are AAC files at 256kbps/16 bit. You can change your settings to AIFF files at 1,536kbps/16 bit which will improve the sound, depending on playback equipment.

Also, iTunes can convert your AAC files to AIFF files at the higher resolution. AIFF files at 1,536kbps/16 bit are considered CD quality.

There are free software apps that can play FLAC files from a computer, and portable music players that can play FLAC files. FLAC (High Resolution) files generally are considered to be higher than CD quality.

When you are converting an analog wave form into a digital one, you basically record the information 'as best as possible' from a slice of time of the sound wave. the more detail you can capture the better the quality but the larger the file and typically the more processing power to render. FLAC records more detail from the analog source material. If you think of them as slices of sound, MP3 is thick and looks like a bar graph, whereas FLAC is much much smaller and will look more like the original analog sound wave.

if you are not an audiophile the mp3 standard is likely just fine. I have come to really love high definition sound.

I subscribe to TIDAL streaming services. Good massive selection of music titles and excellent sound quality.

I use Apple hardware and it works great!

MP3 and AAC are lossy codecs, meaning they throw out data that the listener theoretically will not be able to hear. AAC is a better algorithm and should produce better results than MP3 for a given sampling rate and resolution.

AAC at 256 kbps is pretty damn good and virtually indistinguishable from CD unless you have a really really good playback system. I've tested them, back to back, along with 128 kbps AAC, and differences, if any, are extremely subtle.

iTunes (or Music as it is now called on Macs) can rip CD's using the Apple Lossless codec which keeps all data and decompresses to the exact original (like a .zip file sorta). This is what I use for all CD's that are stored on my iMac. It can be played back on all Apple devices (I think), but the files are a lot larger, so for my iPhone I have all music compressed to 256 kbps AAC.

Remember that iTunes store files are mastered from much higher resolution sources - 48 Khz 24 bit studio masters, and compressed down to 256 kbps AAC, so they may theoretically sound better than files source from CD's.

Now for high resolution audio, I still use discs with a 5.1 systems - Super Audio CD, DVD Audio or Blu Ray Audio. And Blu Ray Audio releases I have are 96 KHz 24 bit LPCM (zero compression). 96 KHz is kinda overkill but at this level there is no credible argument that the decompressed sound wave is not indistinguishable from an analog source.

I haven't messed with FLAC's yet.

Just remember that the actual quality of anything you hear is going to be dependent on the D/A converters and analog output stages in your playback device. And then whatever amplification/speakers/phones you are using.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
I just recently heard about FLAC and other high-resolution audio files that supposedly sound better than traditional MP3 and similar files due to them not being compressed at all or the same way as MP3 files allowing for more detail in the sound.

I'm obviously fairly ignorant about this so does anyone have any experience with it? Is there a noticeable difference and what would I need in order to be able to play it over a traditional stereo receiver? Do I need a special player or would it work with an ipod and mini-rca cable?

You've got it a little backwards.

FLAC and other Lossless formats are simply normal audio. Not high resolution. Just normal resolution.

MP3s and other Lossy formats that some folks are accustomed to now are Low(er) Resolution.

Lossy formats are themselves the problem, and always have been.

Switching to FLAC or some other Lossless format just takes things *back* to Normally Good.

This is possible becauss storage space and bandwidth are now priced more reasonably, which is the only reason Lossy formats ever came about to begin with, because of slow internet speeds and hard drive cost.

I'm 20yrs deep into FLAC and avoid Lossy audio like the plague it is.

There is an audible difference, and on good equipment and with careful listening, the lossless formats (FLAC, e.g.) are very clearly and audibly better, and they are never worse.

There were tradeoffs made designing MP3 formats that made the most of hardware in the '80s when megabytes were precious and you wanted to get more files onto dedicated players with microscopic storage capacity, audio circuitry optimized for power consumption and size rather than audio quality, and often iffy headphones/earbuds. Back then, it was a miracle to have digital audio of any quality that you could take around, and if it sounded muddy or indistinct, so what?

File-size tradeoffs are irrelevent these days. If a file format choice means your phone/player can only hold 30,000 songs instead of 80,000, big whoop.

My advice is to get the best quality file you can - even if today your system doesn't have the capability to highlight the differences, the files will be around for longer than any particular sound system hardware.

RE: what you would need to play it over a traditional receiver. Depends on the receiver, and what you already have that might be able to play FLACs that can talk to your receiver. Couple of ideas:

Burn FLAC files to a removable disc?
For example, check the specs in the manual for your disc player and see what file types it will use. My disc player is an XBOX One X - I use it mostly as a BD/Blu-Ray/Music disc player that, if I burned a disc full of FLACs, could play those music files like any other disc. This is a little clunky in these wireless-digital days as it involves plastic spinning things. But, you can put a metric boatload of FLACs on one Blu-Ray.

If your receiver connects to your network, you could set up a music server and have the receiver connect to that?
Might be getting esoteric here, but there are network-connectible receivers and if you have one, this is an option to consider. No new hardware, assuming you have access to a music server program that eats FLACs.

Buy a FLAC-player that has line audio out (or some other input that your receiver supports)?
There are also devices that will play digital FLAC files using high-quality audio circuitry. Fiio, I think, was highly regarded when I last looked at this. You could find one of those types of beasties that outputs in ways your receiver accepts (Bluetooth? Line out? Audio cable? RCA jacks?) and connect it to your receiver like any other aux audio or wireless player.

Just some ideas to get the juices flowing.

I have ripped my entire 800+ CD collection to FLAC and store them on my QNAP NAS and serve them with software (dbpoweramp's Asset UPnP) and play them back on a number of devices.
I also copy them over to a SSD and play the entire collection through my Alpine car stereo at will.
You can also copy off to other devices such as a media player similar to an IPOD but FLAC capable.
Great format, fantastic sound.