FLAC vs. AIFF: Any Difference?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Audiophile65, Aug 14, 2018.

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  1. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    jtw, WapatoWolf, ivan_wemple and 9 others like this.
  2. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

  3. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    Because it doesn't have a fast enough read/write speed for premium video?
     
  4. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Sure. But, none of that translates into better sound.
     
  5. Freebird

    Freebird Was 205 pounds, now 215.

    Location:
    Plainfield, IN
    AIFF has ALWAYS sounded better to me than ALAC.
     
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  6. Paul_s

    Paul_s Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
  7. Catfish Stevens

    Catfish Stevens Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anoka, MN
    Lossless audio formats (alac, flac, ape, shn, wavpack, etc.) and uncompressed audio formats (aiff, wav) will produce IDENTICAL WAVEFORMS coming out of your speakers/headphones.

    The only difference is filesize.

    The difference is between lossy audio (mp3, aac) and lossless/uncompressed (alac, aiff, flac, wav, etc...) because lossy compression DOES affect the shape of the waveform produced.
     
    vwestlife likes this.
  8. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I find WAV the quick and easy way to make a CDR...
     
  9. TimB

    TimB Pop, Rock and Blues for me!

    Location:
    Colorado
  10. Catfish Stevens

    Catfish Stevens Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anoka, MN
    This is true because burner software will take time to convert compressed audio (lossy or lossless) to uncompressed for CD anyway.

    But I haven't burned a cdr in years. All my cds are under the bed safe in their jewel cases which are gathering dust. All my cds are also saved as flac files on a hard drive.

    I just load my phone with my albums for the day and plug my phone into the car stereo and off I go.
     
    Michael likes this.
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yes my cdr days have slowed down...but, it's still nice to make one and play it on my main system...I have thousands of FLAC, 320MP3, and others on my HD...
     
  12. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    FLAC is merely a wrap around file encoding container that compresses the data kinda' like an accordion which means it can be uncompressed without loss of data but making the file size much smaller than WAV or AIFF. The thing is for me is that there are very few systems-(my MacMini won't play FLAC), software and other playing devices that are compatible making the saving of file size not worth the trouble. AIFF and WAV are music industry and computer playing standard file encoding containers. Nothing special about FLAC that improves the sound.

    This Lifewire article gives a good explanation as to why I don't use FLAC, especially the part where it requires special software to deal with it and other complexities I don't want to have to have rattling around in my head if I were to use it...

    How to Open, Edit, and Convert FLAC Files

    Note that article doesn't mention one word about how FLAC deals with metadata which contains copyright and other info that protects the creator of the content. Here's an even better site on all that needs to be known about FLAC...

    FLAC - faq

    Sure is a lot of info for something as simple as a file container. I don't need this complexity.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2019
    enfield likes this.
  13. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    The files will be identical upon playback. FLAC is just a more efficient way to store the files that uses less disk space. If you are on a Mac, I would suggest using Apple Lossless as that format works with all the Apple stuff.
     
    Gaslight likes this.
  14. Melvin

    Melvin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    With hard drive space no longer an issue I moved back to WAV a while ago. Yes, larger files but compatible with just about every device in audiophiledom (I use macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS). In the past I've used AIFF, ALAC, and flac (uncompressed and various compression levels) and they all sound good but I swear-to-God WAV sounds better to me. I know I know .. please don't flame me :D.
     
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  15. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    It might. The data with FLAC ALAC and the like are lossless but you still need a decoder. It's possible that the decoder itself is the diff you're hearing.

    My main issue with WAV is the lack of standard tagging. Programs get around it but can create issues at times. From my recollection.
     
  16. enfield

    enfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex UK
    For me WAV sounds better on my equipment than FLAC..Don't ask me why or how.
     
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  17. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    It’ll be great when all you WAV users migrate your library or something to another platform and all you see is a bunch of Track 1, Track 2 and missing artist names. Good luck with that.
     
  18. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    In the past, I could have sworn FLAC files created through EAC sounded better than the ones created through dBpoweramp. I thought it was just down to what FLAC version each was run through. I tried WAV and FLAC both done by dBpoweramp and could have sworn WAV sounded better. I got flamed for it bigtime on headfi. I never did figure out the difference. Maybe it was the player. I have since moved on. I would believe people who say WAV sounds different though.
     
  19. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    This is the best explanation of why FLAC (or ALAC) doesn't sound as good as AIFF or WAV that I've ever read. The accordion wheezing of uncompressing lossless files and the complexities of the FLAC codex rattling around in the head of the listener clearly degrade fidelity.
     
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  20. Timbo21

    Timbo21 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I did comparisons between wav/aiff to flac on dBpoweramp and preferred wav/aiff. I found the flacs to sound to be a bit muted or soft in the upper mids. If I converted them to wav/aiff they were fine. I have found this on a Linn Akurate DS and other DACs.

    I put it down to the unpacking process
     
    enfield likes this.
  21. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    Yeah, good points. I don't want to be forced to have to think about all this math when I select a song and click play. When I play an uncompressed WAV file, I can just sit back and listen to music. But with a FLAC, even as my 8-core CPU struggles with the task of on-the-fly decompression, it's as if my brain also has to decompress it on a mental level and I find myself with a headache. I don't have time for such things!!!
     
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  22. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    I'm going to use this post the next time some fool tries the old "it's all in your mind" argument to discredit the scientifically proven superiority of uncompressed lossless codecs.
     
  23. enfield

    enfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex UK
    Be careful people.There are a lot of FLAC users on this forum that have put many hundreds of hours into building libraries.They do not take kindly to any suggestion that WAV sounds better than FLAC.There have been various arguments on the subject over the last few years.

    The FLAC problem
     
  24. How about giving information about what you're playing the files on.
    Which media player are you using?
    Which OS are you using?
    Are you using an external DAC?
     
  25. sublemon

    sublemon Forum Resident

    lol, "FLAC users" don't care because we know there is no possibility of different sound between wav and flac. There are many "WAV users" who think they sound better. fine. There are many people on this world who believe a lot of things that aren't true. It is a pretty big flaw of humanity IMO.
     
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