[chococya96]

I just got back from Japan and bought a new MP3 player. One of the reason I bought this little guy was because it supports FLAC. My iPhone doesn't support FLAC so I was excited to buy this MP3.

Those who doesn't know the difference between FLAC and MP3:
- FLAC: Lossless, when you rip a CD it is an exact audio copy and you lose no quality.
- MP3: Lossy, when you rip a CD, you lose audio data and quality.

In other words, FLAC has A LOT better audio quality than MP3... if your talking about size of the file: for one song, FLAC is usually around 40MB average whereas, MP3 is around 10MB.

Now, I won't hesitate to download songs in FLAC from now on, though I still think there are disadvantage. First of all, when you download a single in FLAC its usually around 160~200MB compared to MP3 (30~50MB). I'm pretty sure it will fill up my internal/external 1TB HDDs in an blink of an eye combining with anime and other "private" stuff.
I don't mind buying another HDD though, I don't want to have piles of external HDDs where I need to plug it in every time I want to listen to certain songs. Also, my MP3's cap is 32GB, meaning I won't be able to load a lot of songs like MP3.

So I was wondering if I should keep downloading songs in MP3 or switch to FLAC? or even mix it up?? If possible, I also like people to write about the pros/cons of FLAC as I want more opinions/suggestions about it.

P.S I didn't want to make this a long post (was planning to write couple of lines) but it turned out to be a long post. So I don't mind if you just read the title and make suggestions.

[chaotix37]

This is like Quantity vs Quality if you ask me.
usually I prefer mp3 lots of songs to listen to, nuff said.

[chococya96]

Originally Posted by chaotix37

This is like Quantity vs Quality if you ask me.
usually I prefer mp3 lots of songs to listen to, nuff said.

Yeah, I should of just said "Quantity vs Quality".

But can you tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC? I can distinguish some while others I can't tell... so 50/50, meaning maybe downloading in FLACS is bit of waste?

[pkkers]

When it's all about music, i sure choose a better quality no matter what size or bla-bla mate!Just like movie or bla-bla xD(but i always choose 720p for movie or bla-bla!UMMM!Where do you get FLAC format?

[Darkchao45]

If its space that's bothering you just stick with MP3. Unless ofc your an audiophile and must have everything at pristine quality.

[dreamer2908]

In other words, FLAC has A LOT better audio quality than MP3... if your talking about size of the file: for one song, FLAC is usually around 40MB average whereas, MP3 is around 10MB.

Actually just little better quality. The different is easily noticeable on some material like hand-clapping, street noise,... (non-linear sound). On others, most people can't hear the different between 192kbps MP3 and original audio (so-called "transparent" encodes).
If with "normal"|cheap|so-called equipments, noise around, it is truly impossible to hear any different. (of course, with proper MP3 encodes - bad encodes do not count)

Some metrics like PSNR can show the actual difference between a lossy encode and its source. A guy at [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]did this with a weird method.
Even at CBR 128kbps, PSNR can reach 49.7264 dB (means 99,5% is the same - only 0.5% is different). Reducing very little signal loss costs much more space. The last 0.1% costs more than the rest 99.9%.
No, this metric is just to "see". It's useless. This 0.1% doesn't make sense with my headphone.

For digital signal lossy compression, this is normal. Uncompressed original video can be 100 times larger than an encodes but they "looks" the same. PNG and JPEG images is something like FLAC and MP3 audios.

Less than 0.1% people can actually hear the quality difference between FLAC and MP3.

Just some facts... FLAC or MP3 is your choice. I don't suggest anything.

[Dami]

i go for FLAC if its available, actually i got a FLAC Player too since my phone does not play it either. You can mix it i guess, i cant find alot of older songs in flac so i do that. Space is not an issue either, im picky with my music so i don't have alot i listen to and still have space left lol

[digritz]

Hey choco welcome back. This debate is pointless without consideration of what your hearing your music through. If your primary source is through headphones then it would be difficult to justify FLAC over MP3. To appreciate the differences between the two formats will require a speaker that can generate the highs and lows that are lost in MP3 recordings.

Speaking of debates how did your competition go?

[Apathy compleX]

if you choose FLAC, then it's as if you're "rushing the world." in other words, in the future, there will be a time when our hard disks are a lot bigger in size by default. In these times, our internet connections will also be faster, and then, we will ALWAYS download FLACs and 1080p BD rips.

the fact that you had to ask your question means you're just like everyone else here, you're not ready to rush the world

[chococya96]

Originally Posted by digritz

Hey choco welcome back. This debate is pointless without consideration of what your hearing your music through. If your primary source is through headphones then it would be difficult to justify FLAC over MP3. To appreciate the differences between the two formats will require a speaker that can generate the highs and lows that are lost in MP3 recordings.

Speaking of debates how did your competition go?

Ah Digritz, how you doing?? Good to see you

Yeah it was pointless for me to post this thread though I was just curious whether people appreciate mp3 more than flac or vice versa.

Anyway for the debate.... We lost to the Tokyo team!!! Argh, pisses me
Off. Though we came 7th out of 35 teams so I guess it's alright. As for touring within Tokyo, it was too cold! I literally freeze my ass off and had to wear at least 4 layers of clothing. Glad I came back before snowing.
Bought a lot of stuff as well including this new mp3 and PSVita... Very expensive I should say. Apart from that manga, Touhou doujin stuff, BD anime, ero games etc... Bought tons of shit... This time I didn't tour a lot, I went shopping spree instead and at the end I went over baggage limit.

But I regret one thing and that is I MISSED WINTER COMIKET!!!!!!! FML though I'm planning to go summer COMIKET 2012.

I think I blabbed too much.