FLAC vs WAV


I have observed (heard and then tested so as to confirm) the following “condition” as it relates to the widely debated issue of FLAC quality. The purpose of this topic is to gather opinions as to whether or not your observations are similar too – and therefore support – my own.

It is widely understood and accepted that a FLAC file while “compressed” is “lossless” as compared to its corresponding WAV file. Let’s assume (i.e. not debate) this is completely true. What I am noticing is that when the FLAC file is “played” via any FLAC player it sounds different from the sound of the “same” (equivalent decompressed FLAC) WAV file when played back via the same player that was used to play the FLAC file. This is specifically noticeable (to me) in the low frequency spectrum. The WAV has considerably more “sonic energy” that manifests itself as appearing to be a bit louder, wider in frequency range and perhaps even dynamic range as compared to the FLAC equivalent.

I’m curious as to your findings when you compare a FLAC file played natively as compared to the WAV equivalent played via the same player (for example, play both the FLAC and WAV via VLC media player) or practical equivalent, such as if the FLAC was burned to CD and you are comparing the FLAC played via VLC and the CD played via a CD player.

I am further assuming that the WAV file is a more accurate representation of the audio than the FLAC. This is to say that should you agree with the aforementioned, it would be preferable to play the WAV file or decompress the FLAC file before using it.

128x128gdhal
No difference unless your DAC can't handle input jitter. A suprising number of snake/ I mean audiophile DAC can't  handle input jitter properly.
The diferrence in sound between FLAC and WAV/AIFF is real. I hear it too.
People confuse lossless as the only contributor to sound quality for digital files. Losslees only means that the file is bit-perfect i.e. No loss of digital bits in the file. But another important factor is whether the file itself is compressed or uncompressed.
But the difference in sound quality that you hear between FLAC and WAV/AIFF is not because it is lossless or lossy. It's because FLAC is compressed while WAV and AIFF is uncompressed. On playback of FLAC files, the computer needs to uncompress the files and this extra processing can add noise and phase distortions. 
With some CD ripping software like dBPower, you can set the compression level of FLAC between 0 to 10 with 5 being the standard compression level. If you rip unto FLAC with 0 compression level, it becomes uncompressed and lossless. And it sounds similar to WAV and AIFF. Try it yourself.
If you can hear difference between flac and wav you need to get a properly designed DAC, eg, one with a reclocker built into it like the Emotiva DC1. Lossless is lossless, there is no difference between decoded flac and wave output other than jitter values (flac will have more jitter because windows is not a real time operating system)

coli - this has nothing to do with jitter, besides, there are no DACs that are immune to jitter, even those that reclock.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio