Compress FLAC flies for mobile

[audiobomber]

I have a library of uncompressed FLAC files on my NAS (16/44 and 24/88). I would like to selectively compress some music to store on my Android phone's 64GB SD card, mainly for listening through headphones. I will likely add some music to Google Play later. What software and format do you recommend? 

[audiobomber]

Thanks for the comments. The difference in storage required for Level 5 vs. uncompressed FLAC is only about 5%. Hardly seems worth the effort of converting. I may as well just transfer what I have to the phone. 

 

Do you really think non-lossy is audibly better for mobile phone/iem listening? I guess I should try a few files to see if it matters to me.

[audiobomber]

2 hours ago, jcbenten said:

Use a bigger sd (micro?) card...reasonably priced up to 128 GB these days.

I bought a 128GB card from Amazon. I successfully loaded 11GB of data as a first step. When I tried to load more files later, everything looked normal and the files were visible on the card. When I tried to play them back on the phone, they had disappeared. I tried to reload three times with the same result. I have now purchased a 64GB SanDisk card because they are a reputable company.

 

> "Discerning mp3 vs flac will depend on your headphones and environment."

 

That makes sense, but as part of the environment, I would include the attention I am paying to the music. Normally with my phone, I am not listening critically. I just want to hear some tunes. I have more resolving systems for critical listening.

 

 

[audiobomber]

1 hour ago, Veovis said:

 

The difference between uncompressed flac and level 5 flac should average around 30-40 percent. You shure the files you have are uncompressed and not level 0 compression? Uncompressed flac files are actually marginally larger than the original wav files beacause of the added chunk that stores metadata.

I had no idea that zero compression was different than uncompressed. You are correct, my files are level 0 compression. 

[audiobomber]

I use a Sabaj Da2 DAC and Sennheiser Momentum HD1 in-ears with my Samsung Galaxy A5 phone.

 

I have very little experience with compressed music. Recently I listened to a few hours of Google Play Music on my high resolution main headphone system. I did not find the sound quality to be a barrier to enjoying the music, which is why I decided that AAC or MP3 would be acceptable for my mobile phone system.

 

So it appears that AAC can sound better than MP3, but compression software is not available for free? I do not intend to spend money on this endeavour, for a higher capacity card or software. I don't have dbPoweramp, I have Audacity, foobar2000 and Korg Audiogate. I have not investigated which of these would be suitable to compress my music. 

 

[audiobomber]

Very nice, thanks Yuri.

[audiobomber]

9 hours ago, John Dyson said:

48kHz is nicer instead of 44.1kHz, mostly for the micro sized possibility needing subsequent processing (loss of original.)  Additionally, my own superstition is that 48kHz is better than 44.1k, because conversion to 96k (I know about 88.2k, but I'd rather have 96k) potentially has less troubles.

I arrived at the opposite conclusion for my computer audio system; multiples of 44.1kHz. The grand majority of my collection is zero compression FLAC, mostly ripped CD's. I ripped my vinyl collection at 24/88. I chose this resolution because playback is virtually universal, quality vs. storage was reasonable and should I want to burn a CD, there would be no algorithm interpolation. 

 

I only have a couple of 96/24 recordings and a handful of DSD's. Two of my systems play everything at 176kHz, so no interpolation for CD, LP, or DSD replay (DSD sample rates are multiples of 44.1). My main system plays PCM in native resolution up to 96/24, downconverts 176 and 192kHz, does not play DSD.

 

Since I started this thread, I'll state for the record that I went with zero compression FLAC on my phone.