Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler FLAC vs MP3 (Stereo, Joint Stereo, Dual Channel)

I did all my CD ripping into least amount of compression (saves time and storage is cheap) in FLAC with Winamp just to have a complete back up, same as Dean. I have a harder time telling the difference between FLAC and MP3 unless the MP3s are under 128K, but I have never done any direct comparisons as Dean did, I just know any MP3s I have heard at less than 128k start sounding hollow and thin, 128K and up they sound like I am listening to the radio, very acceptable.

I double checked the settings in the manual portion of the Media Monkey ripper and 320 was the highest available. Also in the display they are showing that the bitrate is 320. Are there higher settings available? If so how are they accessed?



Ok maybe I’m developing a better ear but my gut feeling is telling me its something else. When you did your test did you use headphones or speakers? I just retested “Der Kommissar” as it had the most pronounced stereo effects and on my M22s I got the following results with a direct A/B comparison knowing which track was playing .

1. FLAC - NA
2. MP3 Stereo 128 - MP3
3. MP3 Stereo 320 - couldn’t tell
4. MP3 Joint Stereo 128 - MP3
5. MP3 Joint Stereo 320 - couldn’t tell
6. MP3 Dual Channel 128 - MP3
7. MP3 Dual Channel 320 - MP3

The delay that was so pronounced it gave away the MP3 on the headphones wasn’t noticeable on the speakers.

I intentionally used the Sennheisers for my tests as I figured they would be the most discriminating “speaker” I have.

"Are there higher settings available?"

Dean, sorry to be so, er, blunt , but... 420 Joint

The irony is that, aside from attending concerts, I've never touched the stuff.

I didn't mean to send you on a wild goose chase.

Duh, I wasn’t even thinking of that reference, my brain isn’t multi-tasking well right now. My ex roommate from university would be very disappointed in me for not catching that.

Unfortunately I like the stuff just a little to much, but my present job frowns upon it, just 7 years 11 months and 11 days plus the time it takes to walk 25 feet out the gate at the base as that’s where the base security’s jurisdiction ends. Not that I’m planning anything.

New Axiom code phrase. "I'm off to rip some music in 420".

My room mate and I called it “Dave” so the uptight types I’ve always worked for wouldn’t know what we were talking about if I was at work.

Did they look at you funny when you said you couldn't wait to smoke Dave when you got home?

Question; when I rip a CD to FLAC with MediaMonkey, is the only difference between compression level, the speed at which the rip will happen? There is no difference in sound quality?

paul

Exactly. When the player decompress the FLAC file (pretty much like a "zip" program), it will play an exact copy of the original CD.

Didn’t quite phrase it that way. Remember for some time my boss' policy is don‘t ask don‘t tell.

Come to think of it we didn’t have to use it that often since when Dave was available he partied almost every night.


It’s by far the biggest difference but higher compression level will also result in slightly smaller compressed files but most people don’t think it’s enough to waste the extra time. Another issue with using higher compression levels with FLAC is that it requires more computing power to uncompress and play on the fly which causes problems for some portable players. But as Efalardeau said no matter the compression level you can still uncompress all the original data non is discarded.