Best FLAC converter software

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I was extremely sceptical when I first saw someone posting about differences of different lossless file formats (from the same source) since they are only containers for PCM data.

This is why I once made a test and converted 1.) an original WAV source file and 2.) an original FLAC source file.

I ran both through 4 different converters (iZotope RX, Steinberg Wavelab, XLD and a 4th app I forgot since I've cleaned my computer from unnecessary stuff 2 years or so ago).

Now, I converted 50 times in wild order of the apps going from source to wav, to flac, to aiff back and forth.

In both cases the final "50th generation" file nulled with the original file - so they were bitperfect identical.

IF there is a difference while playback it's attributed to the playback software - not to the file format or the number of conversions.

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9 hours ago, bogi said:

This thread is about more computer software producing the same file (the same checksum). (...)

What different software can cause is that it can produce different computer noise pattern when it is processing the same audio file.

As far as conversion of one PCM container (AIFF, WAV, FLAC) into another goes I think it's not adequate to talk about "processing".

It's rather a re-wrapping into a new file container while the actual PCM data is passed through untouched (in the case of FLAC a file compression similar to ZIP is also at play).

This is why you can convert back and forth through the different lossless formats all day long and in the end you'll have a file that is identical to the original source.

When a certain converter software doesn't pass through the PCM data unaltered I'd look at the internal settings (is it really set to "pass through" or is something else active? ... which would turn the re-wrapping in fact into some kind of "processing").

 

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16 minutes ago, bogi said:

IMO this is quite general thing. Every computer activity produces some noise. Normally, it doesn't hurt anything, because in digital domain all works as should. But it has influence to audio related things.

I agree... of course.

 

16 minutes ago, bogi said:

That's valid also about FLAC to WAV converters. Implementation of these converters is not the same. They are in principle doing the same thing but they can for example use different sizes of internal buffers, resulting to repeated power consumption pikes and thus noise pikes at buffer operation frequency. So under the word "processing" I didn't mean any change of FLAC/WAV audio content. I meant general computer activity, which, as always, consumes some electric power and generates some noise.

What puzzles me is in how far computer noise is relevant when converting a lossless file to another file format?

It's not that the computer noise generated during conversion is somehow written in the converted target file.

The actual PCM content is actually only dublicated into a new wrapper (similar to copying a file to another drive.)

 

And with regard to playback... well, maybe the decoding of FLAC may introduce a super low level of computer noise.

But only for the super short time it takes the playback software to load the PCM into RAM ... after that initial decoding everything should be equal to, say, WAV. It's really totally a non-issue.

 

As far as the conversion software goes... take one that works as supposed to and call it a day 😊

Also a non-issue ...

 

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58 minutes ago, bogi said:

I found repeated reports that "WAV sounds better than FLAC" and never opposite.

Sure. You‘ll find a lot of nonsense on audiophile forums.😜