What's the appeal of FLAC?

[Soda Popinski]

Lossless audio is great and all, but it's pretty much worthless to me if I can't put it on my Ipod. Do other mp3 players play FLAC files?

[roseboundhawk]

i asked this in another thread...i never did figure it out.

[Soda Popinski]

I have a buddy that's a big linux geek and "hacked" his Ipod and runs some goofy software on it, I should ask him if it will play FLAC files. They are so goddamn big though, I dunno if I'd even want to mess with them.

[HawkLax6]

I don't think you can put FLAC files on most players unless you find some kind of hack. I don't have a lot of knowledge, but that is what I have read before.

[lilzaphod]

I believe some Cowan players might.

My ears are so shot, I have a hard time telling the difference between 192 Kbps VBR and CD quality audio anymore.

Partially because a lot of stuff is also made for listening on shitty ipod headphone, and partially because I shot a lot of guns without hearing protection when I was a kid.

[Soda Popinski]

I believe some Cowan players might.

My ears are so shot, I have a hard time telling the difference between 192 Kbps VBR and CD quality audio anymore.

Partially because a lot of stuff is also made for listening on shitty ipod headphone, and partially because I shot a lot of guns without hearing protection when I was a kid.
I'm not quite Monster deaf yet, but I'm halfway there...I'm with you. I'll take my 320kbps mp3's over FLAC and never know the difference.

[Soda Popinski]

Ok, I know. Say you're a DJ, that plays music files from a computer into high dollar audio equipment. FLAC is probably the way to go.

Mystery is solved.

[PlannedSickDays]

flac codecs for windows media player are easy to find via a google search

http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

as a general rule, if it is a bootlegged concert recording I keep it in flac. Anything else I convert to mp3 for my ipod. In most cases I keep the original flac file, otherwise it gets deleted.

[Soda Popinski]

flac codecs for windows media player are easy to find via a google search

http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

as a general rule, if it is a bootlegged concert recording I keep it in flac. Anything else I convert to mp3 for my ipod. In most cases I keep the original flac file, otherwise it gets deleted.
Do you have a couple Terabytes or something?

[newsbreaker]

Ok, I know. Say you're a DJ, that plays music files from a computer into high dollar audio equipment. FLAC is probably the way to go.

Mystery is solved.

That's true.

I had a DJ who worked for me who thought it would be brilliant to put a ton of songs on a single disc when he found out our CD player could handle MP3's. It didn't take long for him to see the errors of his ways.

The only problem with FLAC files I've found is that occasionally you'll have someone who converts an mp3 into FLAC. You can't turn a turd into a diamond.

It would vary by mp3 player, but many of them don't have great soundcards in them, so even if you could get a FLAC file onto the damn thing (and if doing so didn't quickly fill your drive) you're still stuffing the higher quality sound through a lower quality output.

In my experience, portable audio players just aren't built to give you good sound - only convenient sound.

[kerouac]

Cowan players do play flac files. I convert all my albums into flac files (but then again I have a 4TB Raid 5 NAS server at home). When i listen at work I use the flac files, if i need it portable, i convert to mp3. Is it necessary? Probably not. I can hear the difference in my LP's vs CD's, but with work speakers or most earbuds it is not that big a deal...