FLAC vs. AIFF: Any Difference?

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

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  1. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    He always used FLAC (the default compression level 5), he has literally "gone large" to level 0, uncompressed FLAC.

    The only compatability problem we've encountered was someone's WAV tags going AWOL. He was convinced WAV sounded better. A couple of friends and I could hear no difference to FLAC through a £70K system.

    If someone else prefers AIFF, or WAV, great, they have a choice.
     
  2. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    FLAC compression level comparison

    Being fundamentally lazy means I try and avoid repeating things that other people have done. There are multiple examples out there where people have looked at file size vs. encoding time for FLAC files and the first table in this link seems representative of many people’s findings.

    Essentially, the reduction in file size seems very small for a greatly increased encoding time if one compares FLAC 8 to FLAC 5 (FLAC 5 being a common default in ripping software).

    Having said that, real life encoding time with a modern multi core processor is unlikely to increase CD ripping time, as the speed of the CD drive is likely to be the rate determining step and e.g. dBPoweramp will just use multiple processor cores anyway.

    A major batch conversion to FLAC 8 from another format is likely to take considerably longer compared to FLAC 5.

    I may as well stick to the default FLAC 5 settings for ripping and think there is little point re encoding my existing FLAC library to FLAC 8 for such a marginal reduction in file size.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2020
    Randoms likes this.
  3. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    Makes total sense.

    The vast majority of my files remain in AIFF and since changing to FLAC level 8 the most CDs I've ripped in one session is around 20, so to be honest the increase in time is simply not a big deal for me. I only tend to convert from AIFF to FLAC to embed the art at a certain size for the car.

    I really don't think the difference between 5 and 8 is a big deal but as I have not had an issue on any player, use FLAC level 8 for new purchases - obviously the big space saving was AIFF to FLAC - not uncompressed.

    Very little is universal in the word of digital music files!
     
    Sevoflurane likes this.
  4. Grant

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

    Nope. Different thing.
     
  5. I ripmy CD's exactely like you, with dBPoweramp to FLAC at Level5 that is the default and as this has worked fine for me for many years I haven't changed the level of compression. You know, if ain't broken don't fix it.
     
    Sevoflurane and Randoms like this.
  6. Randoms

    Randoms Aerie Faerie Nonsense

    Location:
    UK
    Unsurprisingly, the default settings work extremely well for the majority of people.
     
    Kiko1974 likes this.
  7. Indeed.
     
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