Thread: Do you download FLAC or MP3 ?

Well,I can't see a big difference between a FLAC file & MP3 encoded in HQ 320Kbps file aside from the pure sound which you can still NJoy playing a HQ MP3 file....Still sometimes I do prefere to download FLACs especially for non electronic music which don't come in 320Kbps even in original CD...

usually download mp3

Mp3. Much easier. Maybe when usage of Flac is easy, i will just move to Flac. =P

I generally download MP3 for a couple of reasons. Firstly, FLAC won't go on my iPod without being converted first. Secondly, I try a lot of music that I'm unsure about, that is from bands I've not really heard much by before. Because of that I'd rather not burn my ratio too much or spend too long downloading something I might not like.

However, if it's something I definitely like, I'll download a FLAC. Or if it's something I want to burn to CD, which I do from time to time, I download the FLAC if available. Oh and I'd only download a V0, V2 or 320 CBR MP3 (possibly a 256 at a push). If it's a choice between a poor quality encoding and a FLAC, I'll go FLAC.

FLAC for sure, when I dl music I like to have an exact copy. The lossless trackers are by far my favourite trackers for music. What has quite a bit of FLAC, but too much of it doesn't have log/cues or wasn't ripped with the right settings. I mainly use What to dl some MP3's of bands I'm not sure about, then upgrade them if I like it.

I stick to MP3 just to save space, and unless it is a song/album that I absolutely love then I would get it FLAC.

I know, FLAC is better,
but usually i download MP3..

Of course,
if i love that group,
i download FLAC.

Originally Posted by Pudenry

FLAC for sure, when I dl music I like to have an exact copy. The lossless trackers are by far my favourite trackers for music. What has quite a bit of FLAC, but too much of it doesn't have log/cues or wasn't ripped with the right settings. I mainly use What to dl some MP3's of bands I'm not sure about, then upgrade them if I like it.

Well,you still can have the same exact copies or even better ones in MP3 format...just use TT for best MP3 HQ tunes that are digital ripped off producers PCs while encoded then watermarked for safey reasons for release records...

Of course you can find excellent MP3's available that have been encoded straight from the source, but this seems to only really apply for electronic music which is widely distributed in MP3 format. For pretty much any other genre, the best quality you can get is a perfect FLAC rip of a CD (or a 24/96 quality Vinyl rip but that's another story).

Most people who take the time and care to accurately rip to FLAC are enthusiasts, often with high quality rare pressings of the album (DCC Hoffman Remasters, MFSL etc.) and that is why I choose to download FLAC over MP3. If I want MP3's for a portable or to give to friends or whatever, it's easy to encode them from the FLAC's I downloaded.

My critisism of What was based around the fact that they don't require Log/Cue files with their FLAC rips, so there is no way to verify if the rip was securely done with the correct settings. Even when a log is included, you often see incorrect settings or even CRC mismatches in What FLAC uploads. That is why my first port of call for music downloads is the lossless trackers, which have very strict quality control to ensure each upload is a perfect 1:1 copy of the original source disc.