#1496540 - 09/22/08 07:11 PM
Is FLAC as good as CD?
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TtownCLS
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Registered: 02/11/08
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This question came up while discussing the poor recording practices used these days. I've posted before about what compressing music into MP3 format does to your recordings. I decided to take a song that I like and compare the original CD recording to a FLAC version of it. The song?? Steve Winwood "Higher Love" It has a nice percussion intro, and some decent dynamics. Steve's voice is pretty "thin" sounding compared to some, but that makes it even harder for an ordinary system to produce it realistically. So here's the results.
Doing an A/B comparison between the FLAC recording and the original CD, I sat in the car with just these two discs and played them both several times without looking at which disc I was listening to. The volume seemed identical. The only thing I could pick out was one of them seemed to have a little better dynamics than the other. For those who have never heard that term before, it's basically the difference between the "soft" parts of a track and the "loud" parts of the track. One of the discs seemed to have a little more definition between the soft and loud parts of the song, and there were some very faint details that were more clear in the same disc. Before we discuss which was the better one, let's look at the analysis.
This is a shot of Nero wave editor viewing the data of both recordings.
They look identical right? Well if you look very close you'll see that the level of the peaks is slightly higher on one. The good news is the frequency response (shown in the bottom bars) is identical. The higher peaks are what make the dynamics seem slightly better. The top is the FLAC and the bottom is the original. The original has the better dynamics and detail. Speaking of that detail, let's look at the data a little closer.
What I noticed is the peaks here are a little sharper and little more "fat" in spots on the original CD (bottom), which is slightly more data. Honestly, most would never hear those differnces on an average car audio system and I even found it hard to pick up on while driving. It was noticeable only while sitting in my quiet garage listening. So the verdict would be; If you want to listen to what was intended by the artist, and tend to listen closely for detail, you need to stick to the original recording. For daily listening on an average audio system while driving, you probably won't notice. I still prefer the original just in case, and besides, my audio system is not "average" 
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#1496570 - 09/22/08 08:07 PM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: TtownCLS]
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keep_hope_alive
in another life, i'm a serial killer
SD I Power Bombed the Undertaker
Registered: 04/24/07
Posts: 13370
Loc: Quad Cities, IL
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very nice write-up. did you just paste two screen shots together in paint or did you get wave editor to display two files at once? i need to use that program again.
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#1496672 - 09/23/08 04:10 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: keep_hope_alive]
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TtownCLS
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It's actually two instances of the editor open at the same time. I just aligned them so you can see the differences.
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#1496686 - 09/23/08 05:30 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: TtownCLS]
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:rock:
fat pothead
SD I eat the big piece of chicken
Registered: 12/04/07
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Loc: Rochester, Ny
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more proof why i won't ditch my discs. no matter how many times i almost crash searching for that one i really want to hear 
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#1496750 - 09/23/08 07:34 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: :rock:]
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bikinpunk
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Registered: 08/17/04
Posts: 2880
Loc: Al
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Interesting. I get almost all my music in flac format. Then I convert to wav via Nero when I make a cd. I typically have redundant copies of CDs: one for ‘reference’ listening (.wav) and one for iPod listening (.flac/.alac). I never measured the 2 against each other. The only reason I had different versions is so I can make use of the optical connection on the h/u via CD.
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#1496959 - 09/23/08 10:19 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: bikinpunk]
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JDAccord
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Registered: 07/09/08
Posts: 201
Loc: Chattanooga, TN
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i wish we could figure a way to rip a true 100% lossless copy into wav or another format that ipods support. changing cd's sucks.
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#1496988 - 09/23/08 10:46 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: JDAccord]
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TtownCLS
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From what I've been reading. Apple claims the data is an exact duplicate of the original and listed some samples. What I experienced says there is a very small difference, but I'm wondering if the losses I had were caused when returning the file from FLAC to WAV and burned to a disc. I wonder if those losses would be present if I had an ultra high quality burning station to do nothing but convert FLAC to CD's and burned them at 1X speed. The details of how the CODEC works, says it should be able to pack the audio data and unpack it to the original condition. I don't use an IPOD so I likely won't find out. It would be nice to have a way of archiving CD's. I've lost a lot of disks that are not easily replaced.
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#1496989 - 09/23/08 10:49 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: JDAccord]
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keep_hope_alive
in another life, i'm a serial killer
SD I Power Bombed the Undertaker
Registered: 04/24/07
Posts: 13370
Loc: Quad Cities, IL
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even a cd changer sucks? i think it's a nice way to get a good selection with optimal quality. sure, it's old school, but nothing wrong with that.
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#1497016 - 09/23/08 11:05 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: keep_hope_alive]
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SuperJay
I made this!!
Spammaster General
Registered: 08/30/07
Posts: 41602
Loc: SoCal
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when I rip "lossless" in iTunes, it records at 909kbps. while this is significantly better than the 196kbps that we are used to seeing from iTunes, it isn't the original recording.
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#1497032 - 09/23/08 11:15 AM
Re: Is FLAC as good as CD?
[Re: SuperJay]
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bikinpunk
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Registered: 08/17/04
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Loc: Al
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lossless = digital = 1, 0's, no?
There was a huge thread on this on DIY last week.
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