Is FLAC really "better" than high-bit rate MP3?

[Speedo]

I listen only flanc on my iPod

for sure Flanc is better

War is over, the flancks are free. Flac.

I can hear a difference between 320 and wav/flac but I have a miracle of hearing. I'm mid 30's and can still hear the frequencies they want to scare teenagers away with and if that is put to use I might have to get kids to buy me smokes. How that is? I have no idea since I haven't been to nice to my ears. As I recall 320 cuts the freq at 20-22khz witch is beyond normal human hearing so therefor it does not matter, except for on a dancefloor maybe where the vibration of the bass doen't obey the khz.

[GlazeKing]

I download all my music in FLAC format now. I honestly can't tell the difference with the equipment I have, but since disc space isn't an issue for me, I figure why not have the best quality file available.

Good point. If disk space isn't an issue then why nit have the best quality.

[cinephilia]

then, why not sticking with wav ? any player can read it once burned... unlike flac

[Ronnie Coleman]

I only downloaded flac rips since get a Pedros. And I think flac is better than mp3.

Yeah we will just believe it cuz you say so. Any other facts you wanna create while u r at it?

There is no need to create any facts. FLAC IS better than mp3 because it is lossless. I thought that was clear enough. Those who have large HDDs will need to consider forgeting mp3.

[sandman_1]

then, why not sticking with wav ? any player can read it once burned... unlike flac

True but FLAC/APE can compress that wav down quite a bit. Flac decompresses to wav anyway so there is really no point in keeping a wav file around.

[anon]

Those who have large HDDs will need to consider forgeting mp3.

I have a 1TB drive and still haven't forgotten about MP3s... simply because with my current equipment I don't notice any difference, but I can fit much more music this way.

[cinephilia]

then, why not sticking with wav ? any player can read it once burned... unlike flac

True but FLAC/APE can compress that wav down quite a bit. Flac decompresses to wav anyway so there is really no point in keeping a wav file around.

the point is that wav is compatible with literally everything. music is about sharing - i see no point in only being able to play flac files on your flac-compatible player or computer.

i mean you're not able to play your music anywhere nor you can lend albums to friends that doesn't have the 'right' equipment. this is a big disadvantage in my eyes.

[jkl49]

As I recall 320 cuts the freq at 20-22khz witch is beyond normal human hearing

Only some 320 encodes do this. In fact, if anyone knows any off-hand that do or still do, please let me know or post it here. It used to be that there was no real freq cutoff with 320k mp3, but now some encoders seem to have them cut off at around 16-18khz.

[Expeto]

Those who have large HDDs will need to consider forgeting mp3.

I have a 1TB drive and still haven't forgotten about MP3s... simply because with my current equipment I don't notice any difference, but I can fit much more music this way.

just because we you have lots of space doesn't mean you should fill it with unnecessary stuff.

To be honest I prefer mp3 and ogg files to flac. The discussions is not about which is better, its about definition of the "better". To me "better" is lower file size, and high portable player support, so mp3 is my guy. I throw my music to a ftp location and stream directly from there to my netbook so smaller file size helps alot to my use. I'm happy with "few times smaller file size" instead of "a hardly noticeable quality difference"

[sandman_1]

the point is that wav is compatible with literally everything. music is about sharing - i see no point in only being able to play flac files on your flac-compatible player or computer.

i mean you're not able to play your music anywhere nor you can lend albums to friends that doesn't have the 'right' equipment. this is a big disadvantage in my eyes.

You can decompress it and convert the track to any format of your choosing so I am not seeing your argument here. I can convert a whole album from FLAC to MP3 HQ VBR directly with Foobar and Lame in less than a minute. Or I can burn an Audio CD in less than 3 minutes using the .cue file mounted in Imgburn.