FLAC TO WAV Conversion

[Beechwoods]

Yeah, with an iMac these parts aren't so easy to get at! I have a PowerMac, a whole world of opportunity

[Filterlab]

Indeed, the iMac is a little restrictive to say the least, however I've just upgraded the RAM to 4gb which has changed the computer from 'simply very very fast' to 'immediate'. I'll probably change my Mac at the end of next year or the beginning of 2010, I'll go for a MacPro instead I think. I can start saving now.

[nat8808]

The important thing to understand about MP3 is that the 'loss' data that's removed is data that the codec knows to have no or very little audible impact (for its common purpose). From that we can deduce that most (if not all) of the musically important information is retained in the data file, particularly if Variable Bitrate Encoding is used, and consequently when converted back to a lossless waveform which plays with no data constraints then the resultant output will be preferable...

Obviously the codec is passive and doesn't know a thing (not meaning to be pedantic, just shifting people's thoughts in a certain direction) it depends on the designer of that codec as to what is removed.

Who are these designers and what do they understand about human perception of sound? Normally it is based on phsyco-acoustic research done many years previously by other people (the time it would take to translate research into a workable algorythm). It should be recognised that firstly no-one fully understands how our ears/brains (and the rest of our senses) work in relation to sound - new ideas pop up all the time - and secondly that the phsyco-acoustic phenomena that are considered to design the codec do not apply to all , they apply to a certain percentile of the people who took part in the research, in those lab conditions.

One such example of this is when two similar tones are playing at the same time but at different volumes. The brain tends to drown out the lower level tone and so normally can't be heard. These are deleted by most compression techniques. However! You can train your ear/brain to listen deeper and pick up the quieter tones and also these tones may combine with another close tone or harmonic of a tone so as to create beating effects that one can pick up etc etc etc. In stereo too, the relative levels of these tones and their phase can provide unconcious queues to their location. Basically, in the end you loose richness in the timbre of sounds and instruments, richness that is lost forever. This richness in stereo also relates to spacial info that will also be lost.

Still, I would agree that most people on most systems would probably not notice. Im not saying that I would either but would much prefer for all the detail to be there just in case else I may as well stop improving my hifi..