Digital File Types

[Silent]

24 Bit Flac is the gold standard for me,

Bitrate's good 44K and above.
Neglagable differences above 44K but they are there...but 24bit vs 16bit makes a discernible difference imo.

Do/can you obtain 24bit from physical media or Hi-Res downloads only?

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[struth]

i have a good phono stage that can digitize and send it to a pc for tweaking and saving onto hd. A good vinyl copy program like vinyl studio pro. the stage can also play the digitized vinyl wave on fly staight to your amp shld you wish to.. the program is non distructive so you can always revert back a change you decide you dont like.

[JohnNB]

Thanks for the article. It more or less confirms my experience of file types. I download and store in Flac, and they're playable in high-res on my laptop and phone, both through Foobar.

I didn't know that Flac files are compressed though, yet lossless. I thought this was a contradiction in terms. And it puzzles me that the smaller file sizes with Flac - i.e. less data - can play at 24bit, whereas the larger WAV files only play 16bit cd quality. I like the sound of both, but if pushed I'd say the WAV files played from a USB stick sound marginally better than Flac files played from the laptop. The wonders of science!

[Silent]

Thanks for the article. It more or less confirms my experience of file types. I download and store in Flac, and they're playable in high-res on my laptop and phone, both through Foobar.

I didn't know that Flac files are compressed though, yet lossless. I thought this was a contradiction in terms. And it puzzles me that the smaller file sizes with Flac - i.e. less data - can play at 24bit, whereas the larger WAV files only play 16bit cd quality. I like the sound of both, but if pushed I'd say the WAV files played from a USB stick sound marginally better than Flac files played from the laptop. The wonders of science!

I've honestly confused my ears before trying to determine the difference between the two and as sound quality goes, I've struggled to hear the difference between FLAC and WAV, I just like the piece of mind knowing that WAV is uncompressed.

If you have experimented and you're happy with your current system and way of listening then I don't think anyone else can be tell you're doing it wrong.

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[Edward]

Ages ago I did quite some experimenting to see if I heard any difference between wav and flac. Ripped various tracks from various CDs and then had someone (swmbo) play wav and flac versions of same track in a random order, not telling me which was playing but keeping note of what I said I thought was 'better'. No proof whatsoever that one format was better - at times the results were contradictory.

[Ali Tait]

A FLAC and a WAV file of the same recording are identical. You could make a recording in FLAC, convert it to WAV, convert it back to FLAC and at all points of this the file will be identical to the original.

[Filterlab]

FLAC has the exact same info though. Both formats are lossless.

So does AIFF. All three are lossless.

[struth]

A FLAC and a WAV file of the same recording are identical. You could make a recording in FLAC, convert it to WAV, convert it back to FLAC and at all points of this the file will be identical to the original.

indeed, ive done this and they are to my ear perfect each time. ive seen traces that prove it too.

[Macca]

I didn't know that Flac files are compressed though, yet lossless. I thought this was a contradiction in terms. And it puzzles me that the smaller file sizes with Flac - i.e. less data - can play at 24bit, whereas the larger WAV files only play 16bit cd quality.

You can compress a file two ways:

Lossless compression - file takes up less disk space than the same file uncompressed but no information is lost
Lossy compression - information is removed from the file so it takes up less disk space.

Neither should be confused with dynamic compression which is a completely different thing

Bit rate is not a measure of 'quality' as such. The higher the bit rate the higher the potential dynamic range that can be recorded or played back. 16 bits is a massive dynamic range, in practice it is far more than is required for playback. By comparison vinyl reaches about 12 bits.

Many amplifiers and DACs are unable to reach 16 bits due to noise and distortion levels. The best possible case is 21 bits before the noise intrinsic in the components dominates. Only a handful of DACs manage to reach 21 bits in practice.

[JohnNB]

Cheers Martin. I knew they're be a devilishly complex explanation. It's good to hear that the enjoyment of music can't be reduced to bits of data - or maybe you're going to tell me it can!