Thread: Why go flac?

So I have been building a nice little buffer for myself on both what and waffles. That along with the likelihood of freeleech at waffles for a few days has got me thinking - I currently have a mishmash of quality mp3s (a ton of 256 CBR, a handful V0, as well as a handful at random bitrates).

I currently have about 50 gigs of music - so that would mean I would have close to 150 gigs in flac if I chose to re-download it all (I would likely leave out around 10 gigs of it). Space is cheap now, and now is a better time to do it than ever, but most of what I listen to my music to on only accepts mp3s (which may essentially require me to keep two copies of everything).



So Flac aficionados - I am right on the edge, but convince me - why go flac?

flac is a format that will use in a very good hi fi system. Well, of course a 320 kbs mp3 is just fine but why not to have a perfect quality album in your hard disk?

FLAC and other lossless formats, such as ALAC and WAV (PCM), produce great, high quality sounds on stereo systems. I, personally, dont think its ever bad to have too much FLAC. The main downside, for me atleast, besides the large file sizes, is that formats like FLAC cannot be loaded onto portable music players.

Lol, stick to min. 320kbps and you'll be fine. Unless you have a great soundsystem you won't hear any great differences. FLAC is overrated as hell, and the major differences lies in the placeboeffect you get after being convienced that you really,really hear the differences.

See I much prefer V0 over 320. The very little bit that is caught by 320 that isn't encoded by V0 compared to the size difference isn't worth it - especially since they are both lossy.

Part of the reason that I want to go flac is for future proofing - sure I don't have an amazing sound system now, but I intend to eventually. Plus - if/when a new format comes out - I won't have to transcode my songs from lossy to lossy.

That said - there still is a hassle since for everything I use - I will need an mp3 copy as well.
So how about asking this: for those who use flac - what do you do about generally listening to music on a variety of portable devices which don't natively play flac?

Then D/L V0 and FLAC. V0 for portable, FLAC for the future. Problem solved.

I like FLAC because it gives me the same quality audio that was on the original disc. I can also convert it to any format I like without losing as much sound quality as I would if I had converted from a lossy format.

I was under the impression FLAC could be loaded on to portable music players with different firmware no? Ie: Rockbox with and Ipod.

Did nobody else read this topic title and think "Once you go FLAC you never go back"? COME ON!


Seriously though - I only get FLAC if I can't find it in 320kb, since my primary use is on an iPod, I get FLAC in those cases and then convert it myself so I don't have to settle for less than 320k V0