Why do people give FLAC...Flack?

[Marziman]

In a blind test for FLAC, the difference between it and standard 128 Kbps MP3's is night and day for me! Here are the songs I used

 

Ticket To Ride(The Beatles 1 remastered edition) FLAC

Ticket To Ride(The Beatles 1 remastered edition) 128 Kbps MP3

 

Flicker by Porter Robinson(Worlds album) FLAC

Flicker by Porter Robinson(Worlds album) 128 Kbps MP3

 

Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi FLAC

Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi 128 Kbps MP3 

 

Breakn' a Sweat by Skrillex(Bangarang Album) FLAC

Breakn' a Sweat by Skrillex(Bangarang Album) 128 Kbps MP3

 

While My Guitar Gently Weeps(Tom Petty/Dhani Harrison/ Eric Clapton/Prince Version) FLAC

While My Guitar Gently Weeps(Tom Petty/Dhani Harrison/ Eric Clapton/Prince Version) 128 Kbps MP3

 

As you can see I used a lot of variety from Rock instrumental, to Classical Rock to Classical and two different types of techno music.  My conclusion, is that with instrumentals and rock music the difference is night and day.  FLAC is consensual sex, whereas MP3 is ear rape with some distorted background, lack of depth etc.  The FLAC just brings the techno out a touch more and cleans it up.  It's most noticeable on the Porter Robinson track.

[Paralectic]

It's different for everyone, and it depends heavily on the user's equipment.

Use cheap earbuds and you won't hear a difference.

[DanielHD]

true. but most "usual" people dont hear a difference. i can hear a difference personally.

[Marziman]

Just now, Paralectic said:

It's different for everyone, and it depends heavily on the user's equipment.

Use cheap earbuds and you won't hear a difference.

Oh that's true.  I'm using HD8 DJ's for closed back, then HE 400i's and an old pair of HD 600's.  Run through an E09K then through schiit modi 2 and magni 2 to get the DAC in there.

[Marziman]

And I used Etymotic Hf5's

 

[ShadowCaptain]

7 minutes ago, Marziman said:

In a blind test for FLAC, the difference between it and standard 128 Kbps MP3's is night and day for me! Here are the songs I used

 

 

128kbps mp3s? who uses 128kbps mp3s?

 

Spotify streams at 320kbps MP3 (160kps low quality)

Apple Music at 256kbps AAC

Amazon music 256kbps MP3

 

[Unhelpful]

2 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

 

128kbps mp3s? who uses 128kbps mp3s?

 

Spotify streams at 320kbps MP3 (160kps low quality)

Apple Music at 256kbps AAC

Amazon music 256kbps MP3

 

Yeah... This example is apples to oranges. Or eaten and shit-out apple to apple.

[Volbet]

Becuase you blind tested with 128kps. No one is arguing that there isn't a difference between FLAC files and 128kps MP3 files. 

But try blind testing 320kps MP3 files and FLAC files. I will bet that you can't consistently tell the difference. Atleast, no one of my friends have been able to. 

 

And no one is giving FLAC files themself flack. The flack is given to people who says that the difference between high bitrate MP3 files and FLAC files is night and day. 

The main usage for lossless files is still archeiving, since you can convert them to other files without them artifacting.  

[David_K]

Good quality mp3's shouldn't sound like shit compared to FLAC files. I myself have 3 pairs of headphones: Sennheiser momentum iem's for my phone,and HD598 SE + Shure SRH440 for the PC, and the difference where never night and die, I still keep my music collection in FLAC, but on my G2 with no expandable storage i keep everything at high quality MP3's because of storage limitations on my 32GB model. 

 

Also for old music there is problem of the source the audio was taken from, today releases of old music are remastered to match the loudness wars, the originals don't suffer this loudness/dynamic compression crap and they sound a lot better. 

[samcool55]

Well i don't hate flac, but MP3 is good enough, and it's support is just a lot better.

 

I'm not an audiophile and i prefer mp3 above flac because of the support and file size.

And in most cases the songs i want just aren't available in flac. So there is also a problem with the amount of it that's available.

[EmeraldFlame]

31 minutes ago, Volbet said:

But try blind testing 320kps MP3 files and FLAC files. I will bet that you can't consistently tell the difference. Atleast, no one of my friends have been able to. 

 

And no one is giving FLAC files themself flack. The flack is given to people who says that the difference between high bitrate MP3 files and FLAC files is night and day. 

The main usage for lossless files is still archeiving, since you can convert them to other files without artifacting.  

I generally agree, it's pretty hard to tell the difference between FLAC and 320 MP3 in a lot of scenarios. However, if you have good headphones, you know exactly what to listen for, and you are relatively young, it's actually pretty easy.

MP3's have reduced quality above 16kHz and at 320kbps they completely cut out any frequencies above 20.5kHz. So if you know to listen to the extreme highs, and you are young enough to actually still be able to hear those frequencies, it's relatively easy.

[iamdarkyoshi]

52 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

 

128kbps mp3s? who uses 128kbps mp3s?

 

Spotify streams at 320kbps MP3 (160kps low quality)

Apple Music at 256kbps AAC

Amazon music 256kbps MP3

 

Pandora............................................

[chicksoup]

I'm content with my Mp3 library and I really couldn't be bothered to look for a flac download whenever I find new music. I also had a flac album on my phone once and it was 600mb which was a ton for a single album

[ShadowCaptain]

6 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Pandora............................................

Forgot about that, not a fan 

[GoodBytes]

128 Kbps  is low quality. I can hear a difference between 128 and 192Kbps.

You have to compare FLAC with higher quality MP3s

 

[SteveGrabowski0]

58 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

 

128kbps mp3s? who uses 128kbps mp3s?

 

Spotify streams at 320kbps MP3 (160kps low quality)

Apple Music at 256kbps AAC

Amazon music 256kbps MP3

 

Yeah 128 kpbs is late 1990s bitrates for mp3s. Even 192 kbps is night and day better than 128 kbps.

[iamdarkyoshi]

I use pandora and I have to deal with their shit quality. But the modded APK I have gives me unlimited skips and no ads, so I guess I can deal with it

[Donk Quixote]

During my Tidal trail I turned off the lossless streaming because I couldn't tell the difference between that and 320kbps.

[SSL]

Yeah, 128kbps mp3 is low quality. No one is debating that, let's move on now. Threads about file formats inevitably lead nowhere.

[iamdarkyoshi]

3 minutes ago, SSL said:

Yeah, 128kbps mp3 is low quality. No one is debating that, let's move on now. Threads about file formats inevitably lead nowhere.

Threads about file formats always end up in the

But I agree, lets move on

[h264]

Why does it get so much FLAC.  File sizes are bigger and people don't like that.  Other than that it's as compatible as MP3 unless you have an iPod or something.

[RustyZombie]

I can consistently tell the difference between FLAC and any MP3 in an optimal listening environment.  But I also have decent gear and haven't done anything stupid to damage my hearing.  What really irks me is when people claim WAV sounds better than FLAC, when even a null test shows that there is no difference.

[xtroria]

Seems like there won't be a day where there are no idiots in this sub-forum

[iShad]

1 minute ago, xtroria said:

Seems like there won't be a day where there are no idiots in this sub-forum

Nothing idiotic about it, but it is repetitive seeing the same discussion every other day.

[Pomfinator]

5 minutes ago, iShad said:

Nothing idiotic about it, but it is repetitive seeing the same discussion every other day.

Very true, seems like this is the only sub-forum that consistently has the same questions being asked every day, when all they could do is post in the recommended gear thread.  Actually, why don't we have a "Recommend to Me" thread.

 

Maybe I'm just tired of "What headphones should I buy", to which some fool replies "get M50x's scrub", and then watch it get buried by us.

 

EDIT: Should also encourage more regulars to add to the Recommended Gear Thread.  Plenty of great headphones that aren't on the list cause someone hasn't made a case for it.