Gimme some FLAC, and man does the stereo sound better!

Nov 11, 2013 | 11:03 PM

604 C63

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Gimme some FLAC, and man does the stereo sound better!

I guess I got a little too caught up in the portability of the mp3s on an SD card, cos I got away from something thats a lot closer to my original vinyl roots - namely, lossless audio. Recently I got my hands on about a metric crap-tonne of music in the form of .flac files and I have been playing them from my HTC One through the aux jack. Wow. What a difference. A lot more presence, a lot bigger soundstage, much airier.

By way of reference I was recently on a site where using the Pink Floyd song "Money" they subtracted the information in an mp3 file from the information in a flac file, leaving only the part that you are missing when you listen to the mp3 version. Let me tell you - it is a LOT.

If you want to get all geeked out on it like I did, this is the site I am referring to:

http://kuppiano.blogspot.ca/p/evalua...al-coders.html

Nov 13, 2013 | 05:56 PM

drawde

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Might give this a shot. Do you know if COMAND can play .flac directly? Or do I need to stream it?

Nov 13, 2013 | 06:21 PM

Thor2j

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The closer you get to 320 bit the closer it is to flac. Most mp3s I do I sample at 256. In a car u with stock stereo u won't tell. Now 128 bit sounds terrible.

Nov 13, 2013 | 08:40 PM

rage2

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Try one of those DTS 5.1 Audio CD's if you wanna be blown away. Unfortunately it only sounds good stopped with the engine off, so it's a waste of a 6.2L V8 haha.

Nov 14, 2013 | 12:30 AM

604 C63

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The stock stereo wont play FLACs direct - only mp3 and wma. Thats why I play them off my phone. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the HTC One is one of the better sounding phones. iPhone and iPods sound good to and so you could use Apple Lossless files or you can download an app to play FLACs.

Nov 14, 2013 | 12:39 AM

604 C63

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor2j

The closer you get to 320 bit the closer it is to flac. Most mp3s I do I sample at 256. In a car u with stock stereo u won't tell. Now 128 bit sounds terrible.

All true. I also see a lot of music at 160 and that is garbage. I just got tired of swapping out sd cards all the time and got lazy. That and who can tell when your kids are crying bloody blue murder in the back seat. Then one day I lifted out of my sleep deprived stupor and wondered how a guy who has had some of the sick analog gear I have owned came to be listening to 4-5mb songs. Lossless vs lossy isnt anything new - just new to me in this car and I was very pleased by the difference.

If you are playing at 320 most people wont know the difference, although some of it is not so tangible ie openness. If you are one of those dirty rat evil bas-tards who are violating copyright law and torrenting (nope, no way, not me .....ok sometimes. Never on Wednesdays) you are probably pulling some pretty small files and missing out on a lot.

Nov 14, 2013 | 12:40 AM

604 C63

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rage2

Try one of those DTS 5.1 Audio CD's if you wanna be blown away. Unfortunately it only sounds good stopped with the engine off, so it's a waste of a 6.2L V8 haha.

Only sounds good or only plays (ala dvds)?