Converting my CD Collection from .FLAC to .WAV


Lately I have begun converting my CD collection from .flac files to uncompressed .wav files. on the theory that doing away with a computing step in my transport and dac might improve playback sound. In some cases it does so quite unequivocally. Especially, there is a slight de-glaring of female vocals and horns. James Taylor's voice on October Road is now less shouty. Listening in general feels more relaxed and paced. SRV's guitar jangle is less rankling at times. Julian Bream's lute is less smacking.

Most of the websites from which I download files now offer only MP3 and.flac. In the old days they offered .wav too - understandble since download time and server space cost money.

What say you, knaves?

bolong

It sounds like you already understand that FLAC and WAV files are mathematically the same, if you convert WAV to FLAC and then back to WAV, the bits will lbe identical.

The conversion can be done in much faster than real time, which is why when you rip a CD, the slowest part is pulling the bits from the CD. My computer can convert dozens of WAV's to any format simultaneously.

Which is my way of saying that given modern computing equipment even in streamers (which will probably have dedicated hardware to do the conversion), it’s trivial to convert from FLAC and will have no effect on sound quality.

What do ya’ll think about AIFF?  Uncompressed, lossless, incorporates metadata.  File sizes larger than FLAC, but storage is pretty cheap.  I compared AIFF to FLAC on my system and thought AIFF sounded better.  Very unscientific for sure, just my impression.

You can load metadata onto .WAV files. I use a program called "Tag&Rename" to enter the same info you would have on any .FLAC file. The whole argument of metadata is moot so the only real question is do you want your music uncompressed & lossless or compressed & lossless? May not hear a difference, but why risk it? SSD drives aren't that expensive compared to most people's last cable purchase.

Heard this argument since FLAC began- any form of file compression (math theory or not) is no longer truly lossless. Rip to WAV- storage cost is not the concern it once was. 

Ok - good comments. It needs to be reiterated here though that the proposed reason for converting to .wav is to theoretically eliminate the process of conversion in the transport or DAC - the idea being that the file conversion on the fly inside your gear is potentially adding noise.