The differences between FLAC and MP3, Lossless vs Lossy
The time has come where you can get a 500GB or 1TB hard drive for pretty cheap. Space is no longer a issue for most people. Alot of people are wondering what music format they should use, and what's the difference in quality between each format is.
Lossy Format
This means when you rip a CD, you lose audio data and quality. The most common lossy file is MP3.
Lossless Format
This means when you rip a CD, it is an exact audio copy and you lose no quality. The most common type of lossless files are FLAC and WMA Lossless.
Will you be able to hear a difference between lossy and lossless?
Depending on what you use to play your music, what your speakers/headphones are, and how good your ears are, you may or may not notice a difference between them. Some people, however, cannot hear the difference between them even on the highest end of hardware.
Does my player support lossless?
Some portable music players (iPods, Zunes, etc) will not play certain lossless formats. You should check to see if your player can handle it, and what lossless format your player likes best. Foobar and Winamp should be able to play all type of lossless formats, however WMP11 will only play WMA Lossless.
Lossless is more future proof than Lossy
The best thing about the lossless format is that you can convert FLAC to WMA Lossless and back to FLAC as many times as you want without losing any quality. The same goes for any lossless format. With lossy format (MP3) each time you convert you lose quality and cannot get it back.
The time has come where you can get a 500GB or 1TB hard drive for pretty cheap. Space is no longer a issue for most people. Alot of people are wondering what music format they should use, and what's the difference in quality between each format is.
Lossy Format
This means when you rip a CD, you lose audio data and quality. The most common lossy file is MP3.
Lossless Format
This means when you rip a CD, it is an exact audio copy and you lose no quality. The most common type of lossless files are FLAC and WMA Lossless.
Will you be able to hear a difference between lossy and lossless?
Depending on what you use to play your music, what your speakers/headphones are, and how good your ears are, you may or may not notice a difference between them. Some people, however, cannot hear the difference between them even on the highest end of hardware.
Does my player support lossless?
Some portable music players (iPods, Zunes, etc) will not play certain lossless formats. You should check to see if your player can handle it, and what lossless format your player likes best. Foobar and Winamp should be able to play all type of lossless formats, however WMP11 will only play WMA Lossless.
Lossless is more future proof than Lossy
The best thing about the lossless format is that you can convert FLAC to WMA Lossless and back to FLAC as many times as you want without losing any quality. The same goes for any lossless format. With lossy format (MP3) each time you convert you lose quality and cannot get it back.