Question about FLAC

gagelle

Super Member
This topic is totally new to me. I just read an article that about HD audio. The author states that it has a better frequency range than music on a CD, so much better that he stopped buying CDs. The problem for me is that it's in FLAC format. I have an Iphone and a MAC computer. Itunes is incompatible with FLAC and even if I were to get some FLAC files, I couldn't upload them to my Iphone. I then read that there's software that converts FLAC files to Apple Lossless without any loss of sound quality. I want to know if this statement is true?

I'm beginning to feel limited by my Iphone. I'm entitled to get a new phone now as my contract is almost finished. Can FLAC files be uploaded to an Android phone? I'm not sure if I'm even thinking about this topic correctly. It occurs to me that the increased frequency range of HD FLAC files might not even be audible on my headphones. I have klipsch over the ear headphones which sound very good but I don't know if they can reproduce music like expensive audiophile headphones. So I'm basically looking for feedback on how Akers use HD FLAC files and their opinions about its sound quality. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
Not sure if this helps, but FLAC files are basically the original sound file, but compressed without any loss of data (unlike MP3s, that discard info to shrink the file).

There may be a one-step software to do this; what it essentially will do is convert back to wav format, then convert from wav to your choice of other formats.

Here's the hitch (and I don't know the answer): Can your phone play high resolution files?
And as you asked: Will you notice the sound difference, or will it be enough to make it worthwhile to lose storage space on your portable device?


EDIT: 'Looks like there is an Android app that will play 24/96 FLAC. Whether your phone can utilize the app is the key...
 
Last edited:
For Android the Poweramp app works well for flac files (and supports cue files too).

It should work on any decent phone !

Are you sure there is no alternative players that can read them on iTunes market ?
 
Are you sure there is no alternative players that can read them on iTunes market ?


One of the reasons I dumped iTunes and my iPod was because they didn't do FLAC.

IIRC, someone said that apple may have their own version of FLAC, but how compatible it is with the rest of the world it is , I don't know.
 
Anroid 3.0 and higher does FLAC nativelly.
On lower editions of Android, there are players that can play FLAC files.

But... all in all is useless. All the phones have crappy audio performance (iPhone included here too). Try a real CD player, or an external DAC with PC (running Foobar2000) with some decent headphones (not Apple ones) and you will hear the difference.
 
Thanks for all the information. The web site the article referred to is called HDtracks. The point the author was making is that you can now download music files that are better than CD quality, but only in FLAC format. (He also mentioned a recent Beatles FLAC release that was sold on a memory stick.) He predicted the eventual demise of the CD because this new HD format is superior and easier to obtain. I don't know what to make of his prediction but I'd like to try some HD songs to compare with my CDs. I already have the music on my Iphone in raw uncompressed format which does sound much better than MP3, although it does take up much more space.

I am becoming irritated by my Iphone's limitations. I've read that a new model is due for release in the near future. If there are no major changes, I may switch to an Android phone.
 
Not sure if this helps, but FLAC files are basically the original sound file, but compressed without any loss of data (unlike MP3s, that discard info to shrink the file).

There may be a one-step software to do this; what it essentially will do is convert back to wav format, then convert from wav to your choice of other formats.

Here's the hitch (and I don't know the answer): Can your phone play high resolution files?
And as you asked: Will you notice the sound difference, or will it be enough to make it worthwhile to lose storage space on your portable device?


EDIT: 'Looks like there is an Android app that will play 24/96 FLAC. Whether your phone can utilize the app is the key...

In my opinion, considering the poor quality of the DAC chips now used in Apple gear, you're probably not going to hear any difference.
 
On a Windows PC, Exact Audio Copy will rip and convert directly to FLAC from a CD.

The guy is full of it - the FLAC will be a compressed lossless version of the original - nothing is changed. It should sound eactly the same.

HD Tracks doesn't deal in rips from CD's. Their products are either 24/88 (that one's a pain in the butt), 24/96 or 24/192.
 
In my opinion, considering the poor quality of the DAC chips now used in Apple gear, you're probably not going to hear any difference.

Thanks rnorton. This clarifies the whole issue. And I just gave my excellent Grant Fidelity tube DAC 11 to my son to use with his CD player. It seems to me that it's just not worth the trouble and expense to get any benefit from these HD music files through my computer or any hand held device. I wonder if they can be burned to a CD?
 
Last edited:
Thanks rnorton. This clarifies the whole issue. And I just gave my excellent Grant Fidelity tube DAC 11 to my son to use with his CD player. It seems to me that it's just not worth the trouble and expense to get any benefit from these HD music files through my computer or any hand held device. I wonder if they can be burned to a CD?

Sure, but then the CD player would need to be able to play those higher resolution files, and then you'd still be using the DAC in the CD player, (which, if it's a quality CDP, would be fine), unless you took the digital out of the CD player to an outboard DAC.

There's nothing wrong with using your computer for storage, you just need to take the digital stream from the hard drive out to a DAC, and then to your amp/speakers.
 
Last edited:
IIRC FLAC is for PC (Wintel), you mentioned that you have a MAC so why not try ALAC? I know it's not as prevalent as FLAC but I'm assuming it will be one day on places like HDTracks. It's a shame that they only offer FLAC you would think they would offer that too.
 
To the OP: look into a software package called Max. Transcoding FLAC to ALAC is totally worth it, with no loss in sound quality whatsoever.

Find me a phone that can 1. play back 24/96 without downconverting to 16/48; and 2. drive decent headphones (without an external headamp, obv.). Otherwise, critical listening on a phone is a fool's errand.
 
Last edited:
The benefits of using these "HD" files for playback (as opposed to recording, mastering, and measurement) are dubious even in theory, and can be negative in practice when minimum quality gear is struggling to perform the task. I wouldn't fret too much about what you're missing out on.

AFAIK, the website in question sells music remastered specifically for them, so there is not a particularly good way to tell if you're getting any benefit from the file format, although you can downconvert their files to redbook and compare that to the original.
 
IIRC FLAC is for PC (Wintel), you mentioned that you have a MAC so why not try ALAC? I know it's not as prevalent as FLAC but I'm assuming it will be one day on places like HDTracks. It's a shame that they only offer FLAC you would think they would offer that too.

FLAC is by definition free, what is the shame is Apple's always pushing its own proprietary formats and refuse to support the more open, much popular ones.

Sometimes it's for better, in AAC vs MP3 for instance, but as for lossless audio I cant see their point.

I think the OP should get a flac compatible audio player for his mac and iphone and do no care with conversions, this way he'll be able to keep his library for future devices eventually, and buy in the de-facto standard format.
 
Of course ALAC is open source and AAC is not an Apple format.It is very easy to convert FLAC to ALAC and back and back again with no loss, use either MAX or XLD both free and both work. I prefer XLD as I find it easier to use but YMMV.
 
I have a question that is a little off topic.
Why can't we copy, store and burn exact copies of our CDs in the full CDDA 16bit 1,411.2 kbit/s format that it is on the original disc?
 
I have a question that is a little off topic.
Why can't we copy, store and burn exact copies of our CDs in the full CDDA 16bit 1,411.2 kbit/s format that it is on the original disc?

Every lossless copy of a CD is an exact copy of the original disc.
 
I have a question that is a little off topic.
Why can't we copy, store and burn exact copies of our CDs in the full CDDA 16bit 1,411.2 kbit/s format that it is on the original disc?

You can.
You just need to rip the CD to .wav files.

The benefit of FLAC is reduction of storage space used without any change in quality (FLAC players un-compress on the fly).

If storage is not an issue, FLAC isn't needed.
 
Back
Top Bottom