Are FLAC's a meme or are they actually far superior to MP3's? Nobody on the internet has a clear consensus to this...

Are FLAC's a meme or are they actually far superior to MP3's? Nobody on the internet has a clear consensus to this, so I'm going to assume it is just a meme. Prove me otherwise if you don't.

follow your ears

In the long run it isn't. FLAC files will still sound the same after years of use while the quality of an mp3 will degrade. Meanwhile a new 320 MP3 file is indistinguishable from FLAC

They are better quality, but if you don't have a decent set up then it doesn't matter. 320 mp3 is just fine if you aren't an audiophile.

pmt

>tfw I thought rotational velocentricity was real for 2.5 years

Yes FLAC is a meme. Anybody who says otherwise needs to go outside.

I'm totally talking out of my ass, but this can't be true. Let's say I put an mp3 on a flash drive and leave it for a hundred years, plug it back in and what? Let's say I leave that same mp3 on the computer for those 100 years with hard drive refreshes. Will that version of the file sound different than the one that has been sitting idle on the flash drive?

That whole meme (whatever you want to call it) is extremely effective. I think a large amount of people truly believe it and have no idea it's untrue.

Lol these retards actually think that meme is real. It was specifically created by Hampus the Great to troll newfags like you idiots.

memes can be dangerous. just ask hitler

It's not true dude.

That is an old as fuck meme and retards still fall for it. People who are retarded enough to ONLY download FLAC because of that meme.

I get everything as FLAC/ripped from a CD if I can, then convert it for whatever device I need it on. Might as well start with the highest quality you can.

But don't MP3 files only degrade when you transfer them to CD's and back? I don't think they degrade just by listening to them over and over.

Thanks user, I see it way too often.

Trolled softly
It's a troll.
If you keep converting a track to a dozen different formats/bitrates, it's gonna degrade. It's not vinyl where it'll wear out.

they do, just at a slower rate. It has to do with the physical wear caused to the hardware when the data moves through it.

Hearing the difference now isn't the reason to encode to FLAC. FLAC uses lossless compression, while MP3 is "lossy". What this means is that for each year the MP3 sits on your hard drive, it will lose roughly 12kbps, assuming you have SATA about 15kbps on IDE, but only 7kbps on SCSI, due to rotational velocidensity. You don't want to know how much worse it is on CD-ROM or other optical media.

I started collecting MP3s in about 2001, and if I try to play any of the tracks I downloaded back then, even the stuff I grabbed at 320kbps, they just sound like crap. The bass is terrible, the midrange is well don't get me started. Some of those albums have degraded down to 32 or even 16kbps. FLAC rips from the same period still sound great, even if they weren't stored correctly, in a cool, dry place. Seriously, stick to FLAC, you may not be able to hear the difference now, but in a year or two, you'll be glad you did.

You see it way too often, because there are a LOT of stupid people who actually think the meme is true. It's sad desu.

>in a cool, dry place

lol

If the FLAC was actually taken from the Mastertape it would probably matter. But since a CD is a faulty medium itself it doesn't really matter.

this. if you've purchased anything based on audio quality use flac. if not stick to mp3

cds are .wav

no they aren't. they're PCM stereo audio in AIFF.

mfw when i padded mp3 into flac and retards can't tell the difference

lol you got it wrong, audio files only degrade in quality when they are converted into a new file. So when a finished, mastered track is converted to MP3 for release to the public it is of slightly less (and absolutely unnoticeable) quality to the listeners. And if you download an album and notice the tracks are quiet so you adjust the volume in Audacity and reexport them, there is another (unnoticeable) drop in quality.

But the idea of an MP3 file, which is non-corporeal, just "sitting there" and degrading is absurd. It will always stay the same, no matter who you share it with, unless it gets corrupted or something.

If you can rip to FLAC, you should.
If you're downloading albums that you hope to one day play on a high-end setup, you should download in FLAC.
If you're sharing music, FLAC.
If you're starting a collection of music worth caring about full stop, you should do it in FLAC.
If you'll be copying your music to a Sansa Clip+ and playing it on a pair of ZX310 headphones, then you should be converting the FLACs you already had to MP3 v2 to get the best use out of your available space.
If you're sharing an album with an idiot, take your FLAC and convert it to MP3 320 CBR


FLAC is for archiving or playing stuff on high-end audio equipment at the end of the day, if that doesn't matter to you then remain a filthy casual and get everything in 320 or below.

whatever, uncompressed

all true, except older sansa clip models are actually great entry level audiophile players

Not on those headphones they're not matey.

>FLAC album has song titles spelled wrong
>can't change it

shut fthe fuyck up

You what? Edit the tags in foobar you silly bastard.

Just fucking off yourself.

I've bought a couple of FLAC's from Gira's young god records site, they sound fucking fantastic, better than what you get off itunes, the difference is there but it's very subtle and you only really pick up on it of you are really familiar with the music.

little to no difference for casual listening on mobile devices but i've noticed it preserves basslines a bit better if you have a decent soundcard

not worth the extra space though

Double blind tests have proven audiophile pretentious hipsters wrong anyway.

yeah with their own files which may or may not have been upscaled and which the listeners probably have never heard before. listen to a 320 kbps copy of an album ten times and then a lossless copy ten times. there is a difference.

plus there are people who can hear -6 to -12 db subtleties

it's bait, you dumb shit

>Prove me otherwise if you don't.
Mp3s are literally missing frequencies that FLAC still has

For music released in the past 20 years or so it really doesn't matter since the mastering's shit anyway.

what's that pose called?

When I first came to Sup Forums I actually fell for it for a couple weeks. I was 15 at the time. Still pretty fucking stupid though.

FLAC's are technically superior.
However, if you're listening on earbuds or low-quality headphones, you won't be able to tell the difference between FLAC and 320 or even 250 kbp/s.

squidward doin the mf dab lmaooooo!!!

there's a noted difference between 320kpbs mp3s and flacs that you can hear if you compare specific sounds, but it's minor
mp3 V0 files are nearly identicle to flacs and 1/10 the size so unless you're a hard fucking core audiophile then the quality difference isn't worth the size difference
this is the only important reply in the thread

this is true as fuck btw, although isn't wrong
I did the "can you hear the difference" flac mp3 test and still got fooled sometimes and i have a thousand dollar headphone setup

dis squigga think he slick

HE DABBIN !!!!!!!!

FLAC is superior, but not by far

high bitrate mp3s are indistinguishable from flacs for the most part

It depends on the music you're listening too honestly. I can tell the difference between FLAC and mp3 on something like Soundtracks for the blind, but struggle to hear a difference on something like Spiderland or F#A# infinity.

>be me
>download 128kbps mp3s
>put them on ableton
>slighlty add some vinyl distortion and saturation
>export it on a lossless format
>upload it to what.cd
>laugh at fooled autistic flacfags

320 MP3 is for pleasurable listening and high quality
FLAC is higher quality but is practically indiscernible from 320 MP3 and is more useful for archival purposes than anything.

say if you are an artist trying to preserve your recordings, you would want to keep it in FLAC because it will retain its quality

.
>degraded to 16kbps
every time

...

your ears can't tell the difference, but it's not a meme

mass storage is becoming exponentially cheap and compact

soon there will be no reason not to just download FLAC; we're basically at that point already

>say if you are an artist trying to preserve your recordings, you would want to keep it in FLAC because it will retain its quality
>retain its quality

>implying mp3s "degrade in quality" over time

This is why I check all my files with spek.

You're a faggot, Liam.

But you can actually hear the difference when something's lossless and when it's 128

/thread

>but you cant hear the difference

thats less than 20% of the reason you would use flac.

probably because you loaded it using the .cue file, split the image with foobar and then you can edit each track individually

>If I can't tell a difference then no one else can

If you've got a decent system and turn that shit up loud enough you clearly spot the diference

mp3 starts to distort and blur out at certain volume levels

Flac is a format designed for storage on a harddrive, the idea being you always have a complete file with zero compression, that way if you need/want those files in any other format, it's just a simple conversion, for instance, a .mp3 to .ogg will have compression in places it shouldn't because the file can't be decompressed. .Flac, having zero compression, will give you a perfect file.

also, is right, there's no reason not to download in FLAC other than storage.

>decent
you need a fucking amazing system to hear the difference at actual listening levels, even if you listen really fucking loud

...

i cant even hear above 19khz anymore. what purpose does this have for me?

very few people can tell the difference. i remember when somebody posted that test here - where you had to guess which song was flac, mp3 or wav - and most people, including myself, were terrible at it

>tfw can't even hear above 16khz
i don't even play my music loud

yeah i feel so fucking helpless having lost some of my hearing, i specifically remember being able to hear more than 21khz
what the fuck is there even to be done about this? cant reverse it now

Is that how you lost some of your hearing? Listening to high pitched sounds over 21khz?

lmao
no, i just remember testing my hearing and i could hear the 21khz frequencies, that was years ago, i tested myself 2 weeks ago and can only hear up to 19khz

...

well, fuck you. i totally support FLAC and i specifically asked whats the purpose FOR ME?
i didnt say whats the purpose of FLAC as a concept and that nobody should use it, I SPECIFICALLY asked why its useful for me since i can only hear up to 19khz

Did the hard drive industry create this meme?

can some pls post the screencap of the user getting angry at flac and saying something like "dust and shit"

>whats the purpose FOR ME?
I'm not you. Only you can decide what's best for you.

Just remember if the artist wanted you to hear missing frequencies, they would have released their music that way instead of a full-bodied frequency spectrum in a lossless medium.

don't forget to make the left channel 15% louder than the right

No because it wasn't getting any use. Only if you are accessing the file over and over will it degrade.

Kek

here you go m8

F A M That's bait yet again

Classic bait. Always gives me a laugh when people fall for it

It's just in case really. Maybe media players in 2050 won't support ancient codecs like MP3s. I can always convert FLAC without losing anything.

>all the newfags actually replying to this

Thank you user, you did well.

the only difference is that if you convert a lossy (mp3 for example) audio file to another lossy format the quality will degrade significantly, while you can convert a lossless (flac for example) to another lossless or lossy without damaging the quality (aside from obvious compression if you're converting to shitty mp3 128 kbps)

my favourite meme, thx for posting

came here to post this

i only download flac when it's the only way to get the album and im way too lazy to convert the files to mp3

lol

I've got 100$-Speakers and I am able to distinguish the difference, mp3 gets fuzzy at max volume, flac and lossless wav doesnt if coded properly

did it lately with some funk records from ghana from the seventies