Do Macs Play FLAC?

Ok, flac, not flax

Sorry, Blind Jim, this was the older thread that I was thinking of.  

Btw, I was reviewing my notes from last summer, and the IT guy that helped me transfer FLAC files from my Bluesound Vault2 to the NAS scoured the files on the NAS to make sure that wasn’t some software, somewhere, that was converting the FLAC files into an Apple friendly format, and he couldn’t identify one.

iTune will not store FLAC files. It will store AIFF and ALAC files. So, either your FLAC file was converted to one of the above formats or you have a program such as Pure Music that is using iTunes as a library but not storing the actual file in iTunes. I use a Mac Mini and it has the most current iTunes and I run Pure Music. Pure Music will swallow just about anything but I usually purchase ALAC files from HD Tracks because they are easier for a Mac user to deal with. AIFF is full resolution which is a waste of space. I ran a double blinded test with three friends (wife did the switching) And none of us could tell the difference between AIFF and ALAC. None of us could reliably pick out 192/24 over  96/24. I did not have the software for 48/24. Two of us could usually pick out 96/24 over CD. I question if this was due to different masters. The end result is that I buy 96/24 files. My own opinion is 192/24 is a waste of space. The file is twice as big.