Why do Wav and Flac Files Sound Different?

It may help to think of an audio file as having 3 parts:

• Metadata needed to read the byte stream and it’s location in the file
• Optional metadata about the recording (Composer, artist, year of release, lyrics, album art)
• The music data byte stream

Each of these chunks of information are entirely separate in the file, so as @audiotroy points out, the existence or absence of album art should make zero difference to the DAC.

The byte stream presented to the DAC should be identical regardless of optional metadata or indeed file format (FLAC, WAV, ALAC, etc.).

The one possible/plausible area I can see FLAC vs. WAV causing a difference is with poor streamers that don’t implement decompression (FLAC or ALAC) with adequate buffering and that somehow the time taken to decompress each chunk is affecting the rate at which samples are presented to the DAC. IMHO, this is possible, but certainly signs of poor design, not a feature of the file format.

If there IS a difference in a file because it has or does not have album art that would be a significant functional error/bug.

To end with a metaphor, imagine a vinyl record. The metadata is the text on the label. The cover art is on the cardboard sleeve, and the byte stream is the music in the groves. If you can hear a difference in an album because of the sleeve art you really have surpassed the boundaries of human capabilities.

I am using dbpoweramp to rip all my cds to WAV. I’m getting metadata and album covers which show up on my Aurender. Not sure why people say you don’t get these with WAV. Does dbpoweramp do something special? Or am I seeing something else?

@m2team00  It seems to be a relatively new feature to have album art in WAV files and not sure all converters support it.  See more here.

Well I guess I lucked out getting dbpoweramp to rip my 1500+ cds! Took me 6 weeks at 4 hrs a day!

I find it an interesting question.  Lossless should be lossless, i.e., bit perfect, whether a WAV file or FLAC.  This brings me to another age-old debate on here.  If FLAC is bit-perfect, and it supposedly is, if one rips a vinyl album to FLAC using a good quality analog rig to FLAC, shouldn't the FLAC file have the same "analog" sound as if one were playing the album on a turntable?  I have done that experiment and on my system (all digital), the vinyl inevitably has some "crackles and pops"  from the album that is absent from the same music ripped from CD or streamed.  That plus the convenience of digital makes me not miss my turntable!