FLAC vs. Uncompressed hires

[jmall]

Hi Folks,

 

So I was thinking tonight (always a bad thing) and I was wondering...

 

FLAC is compressed. Lossless I agree but compressed nonetheless. Has anyone been able to compare a true fully uncompressed hires file vs. FLAC (how do you decompress FLAC?). I mean, in computer audio, this file would need to be uncompressed before play, right? So that means CPU/time applied to (probably some decompression library) before playing the song. In my experience with *any* software there are always... issues. Plus it has been shown (to me) that CPU processing does affect sound quality.

 

Anyway... Just a question. Probably not simple. But out there

 

Thanks!

 

Jeff

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Jeff - FLAC does not equal compression. See the graphic below. In dBpoweramp it's possible to rip CDs to uncompressed FLAC.

 

 

 

Also, you can have high resolution FLAC files. The two are not mutually exclusive.

 

 

 

[deckeda]

Jeff, on one of the videos from RMAF 2010, still available on their site, there was some discussion of just what you mention and some recognition of that occurrence from some of the panel members.

 

The feeling was this:

-eliminate anything that moves or spins in the computer

-eliminate anything that makes the computer work any harder than it needs to

 

My personal view is that for best performance your (hopefully dedicated) computer setup needs enough "cushion" to do its best. While that echoes the sentiment from the 2010 panel and elsewhere, that's not the same thing as saying using uncompressed files always sounds better.

 

If you've got sufficient horsepower to decompress on the fly, which I gotta say doesn't really take a lot with modern computers, this is one area of distinction most listeners probably don't need to prioritize.

 

Said another way, if you hear benefits from uncompressed files I'd be looking very, very closely at the rest of the computer setup for answers first, and want a test or two that can compare the output streams of both compressed and uncompressed to learn what's getting changed.