FLAC vs mp3

[treos]

this is just something i've been wondering about since everywhere i look everyones always carrying on about how FLAC is so much better than mp3's.

is there honestly ANY difference in how it sounds (I mainly listen to music on my mp3 player and laptop) or is it just a waste of space? right now i've got 18-20gb of music on this laptop all as mp3's and if i were to convert it to flac the file size would go from 20gb of 451gb up to maybe 80gb of 451gb, seems pretty stupid to me to waste that much space on music alone (FLAC = around 4x the size of any mp3)

just checked and all that music as FLAC would come 1gb over what i currently have in my roms & emulators folder (got some big games in there)

[deadlegion]

FLAC is lossless (Free Lossless Audio Codec).
MP3 is lossy.


There's a difference

[Inferno.]

You can't convert lossy MP3 back into FLAC, you'd have to redownload all your music in FLAC format...

[deadlegion]

You can't convert lossy MP3 back into FLAC, you'd have to redownload all your music in FLAC format...

And get more HDD space.

[treos]

sounds like i don't have much use for it then, then again unless theres no difference in how it sounds i don't really need to bother with it anyway (dunno what the lossless part is either).

edit: just tested this with a song and there doesn't seem to be any difference at all in sound quality that i can tell so i guess i'll be sticking with mp3, both because it sounds the same and it saves space

[mekeninzo]

I pick mp3 because I have no idea what the other one is...

[Alakazander]

I pick mp3 because I have no idea what the other one is...

You have absolute no idea how much this irks me that the mp3 is the only audio encoding format that anyone knows about.

If you really want your lossy, use OGG Vorbis. Seriously.

[mostly_fake]

Trolling, are you?

[deadlegion]

sounds like i don't have much use for it then, then again unless theres no difference in how it sounds i don't really need to bother with it anyway (dunno what the lossless part is either).

edit: just tested this with a song and there doesn't seem to be any difference at all in sound quality that i can tell so i guess i'll be sticking with mp3, both because it sounds the same and it saves space

If your "test" consisted of converting an mp3's to FLAC I'm not surprised you didn't notice any difference.

But.....
Does a retail CD of reasonable quality (not a poor pressing) sound the same as a low/medium bitrate mp3 to you?

[Rockstar1983]

For archiving, I personally like MP3's (highest bitrate possible... 192kbps at least. Preferrably 320k constant bit rate, or 160k-320k variable bit rate). I mostly use FLAC for burning to disc (it creates a perfect, lossless copy... just like my original).

For casual PC listening, however, a FLAC rip doesn't improve my aural experience enough to justify the increased space occupied on my HDD. An MP3 rip at 256kbps or 320kbps sounds close enough to my original disc to make my ears happy under most circumstances.

However, original CD's DO have a certain something that an MP3 rip does not. Thus, the need for FLAC (which, FYI/BTW, stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec... it rips audio at it's original quality, with no loss of quality). Your mileage may vary, however, so try each option for yourself... but use a store-bought CD. Ripping a CD burned from MP3's as a source to FLAC isn't going to improve the sound quality, or accurately represent a FLAC sample. Happy Listening!

[Tassadar]

Honestly if you are concerned with space and you can't hear the sound quality difference yourself, stick with MP3, it's more efficient for storage.

[Virii]

I don't think (s)he was trolling. If you need to save space, go with the superior Vorbis 'OGG', unless of course your portable media player limits you to MP3.

As a secondary route, the next best thing would be 'AAC'. It has better compression ratio to quality than MP3, and is supported by iTunes.

[C0080900]

.mp3 easily wins.

It's the perfect audio format and works on device and platform, besides, even if you use FLAC, you're just wasting space with those huge FLAC files.

.mp3's are smaller and take up less space.

[Knightshade]

.mp3 easily wins.

It's the perfect audio format and works on device and platform, besides, even if you use FLAC, you're just wasting space with those huge FLAC files.

.mp3's are smaller and take up less space.

but FLAC is loss less and doesn't lose audio quality like mp3 and some other formats.

[Aeolus Aeneas]

FLAC is for people who try to justify spending thousands of dollars on sound systems when and swear up and down that they can hear a difference when the human ear cannot, in-fact, detect any difference.

I'm sure right now there's somebody here listening to FLAC with headphones using gold wire, smirking to themselves by thinking just how much more WARM their music is compared to us dirty mp3 using masses.