For those that use FLAC audio format on a regular basis. I would like to know if it does, indeed, sound better than a typical MP3 file? If so, what program would you reccomend to rip CD's?
Topic Title Edited.
This is a [question].
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Stevie BM
I have just heard of this format a seconds ago ... in reading my mails. A friend of mine has tested a software that encode in MP3
It's named Jetaudio and goof news it's skinnable ( but not free )
I have never tested ... and have no time for now to do so but if you feel the mood of testing ...JETAUDIO WEBSITE
Yes, it does sound better than MP3 as it is a lossless format. Whether or not you will actualy hear the difference depends on a few factors, soundcard, speakers, your ears. It is great for archiving your music, infact the first thing that I do when I buy a new CD is archive it in a lossless format. I prefer Monkeys Audio to FLAC as I find that the tools that come with Monekys Audio are better. Here are a few links:
www.monkeysaudio.com <- Monkeys Audio compressor and WinAmp plug-in
www.exactaudiocopy.de <-The best software for ripping CD's.
www.hydrogenaudio.org <-The best place to learn about audio compression
-HD
I am a avid trader of live music and flac is decent but the king is still the shn format..
its 100% lossless
for those that dont understand go to www.etree.org and read up on it.. traders only use shn and flac
and for you music lovers visit the online archive of live music hosted Click Here
also for more live music check out the biggest live music site www.sharingthegroove.org
Yeah, I use FLAC for archiving. It's great for making 1:1 copies of CDs. Set the compression up to the max, and you get really small files (compared to Monkeys, WAV, etc).
But since I don't have loads of harddrive space, I use MP3 and OGG for actual listening. I have a decent sound card, speakers, hearing, etc, and I can barely tell the difference between FLAC and lossy formats. FLAC sounds a little more vivid, but no big difference.
Of course it sounds better than mp3... it's lossless. It's the exact same thing as comparing an mp3 to the original CD.
FLAC and all other lossless sound exactly the same... Because they are all the same quality.
The only thing that makes them better than other lossless is speed of compression and filesize, and there are some sites which prove FLAC is the best in these catergories
Originally posted by dav@Jun 3 2004, 02:32 AMThe only thing that makes them better than other lossless is speed of compression and filesize, and there are some sites which prove FLAC is the best in these catergories
Umm, plus FLAC has other things such as meta data and built-in file verification, which SHN doesn't have. It's also streamable, among a few other things. So no, they're not all the same... although they do of course sound the same because they decompress to the same data.... since they're lossless 
Originally posted by ibanezcollector@Apr 5 2004, 01:07 AMI am a avid trader of live music and flac is decent but the king is still the shn format..
its 100% lossless
as opposed to 40% lossless?
Yes, I archive everything to Flac these days, which is one of the reasons I use Foobar to play all my music. itunes doesn't support flac. You can also play it through winamp.
The best solution I have found for ripping is to use Cdex and Flac frontend. Haven't got links immediately available. Just google "flac" and "cdex" and you will find them easily enough. Install both and then configure Cdex to work with external encoder (through "options" ) and point it to the fllac encoder in the Flac directory on your harddisk This means you can easily use internet lookup for track names etc and all your tags are made properly.
Does it sound better? I think it certainly sounds a lot better than mp3 at 128 bitrate. At 192 bitrate I'm not so sure that it sounds that much better, but I have very ancient Microsoft usb speakers, which I doubt are a truly reliable guide. The good thing about flac (or any lossless format) is that you can always make a perfect copy of your CDs should anything happen to them.
Tourmalet
People, FLAC will always sound better than MP3.. Why? Because it is lossless, which means the same quality as the CD. Monkey's Audio, Flac, Apple Lossless, whatever are all the same quality, they just have slightly different encoding speeds, sizes, etc.
MP3, OGG, AAC are examples of lossy. It is valid to compare these between eachother because they vary in sounds quality at various bitrates.
I hope I am making sense.
who knows, i bet most people can tell the difference.
i have $200 creative speakers and can't tell, its only when i get to go home to my hifi that i can tell, its not a world of difference then either.
just use ogg or lame mp3 (thats not an opinion ;-) lame is the best out there) and be happy you're using 1/4 of the disc space.
I would like to remind you guys iTunes has Apple Lossless built-in. You can play back more easily on macs .
Monkey Audio has no OSX support, and flac requires you to compile stuff.
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