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FLAC versus MP3: Does it make sense to use a “lossless” audio codec?

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Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is an audio format that is unknown to the public, but is particularly loved by the most demanding audiophiles: unlike MP3, AAC and their partners, FLAC is lossless, which means that it compresses audio with no loss of information. The advantage is the superior quality and the certainty that a 1: 1 copy of the original can only be made from the files. The disadvantage is that the tracks “weigh” significantly more. Is it a winning engagement or not?

Let’s go to the conclusions

If you have original, rare and / or valuable audio recordings that you want to keep indefinitely for years (even if the original media wear out), FLAC is the optimal choice.

But if you only make it a matter of quality, think twice about it: it might not be worth it.

Never convert from MP3 to FLAC – it would take up extra space for free.

FLAC is … an audio codec

Let’s start with FLAC being an audio codec: that is, it is used to compress music or other sound sequences so that they take up less space than storing the same information directly.

To get an idea of how basic this is, keep in mind that an hour of uncompressed audio (no video) takes 620MB.

FLAC is … “free”

Then there is the word “free” which should be interpreted as “free” and “free”. FLAC is distributed in open source mode (GPL license). This means that its specifications can be used by anyone without paying any commission.

In contrast, there are MP3s that must be used within software and device manufacturers by Thomson Consumer Electronics and the Fraunhofer Society.

FLAC is … lossless

The third aspect concerns the type of compression used. While MP3 and AAC reduce the weight of the file by permanently eliminating frequencies and nuances that are generally unrecognizable to the human ear, FLAC retains every last bit present in the source and then applies only a number of specific optimizations, before the file is saved result in reducing the size on the hard drive. When the file is opened, however, the process is reversed and FLAC returns the original audio perfectly.

The procedure is similar in many ways to that of compressing in zip format: when the file is unpacked, we get the perfectly preserved initial file again. The difference is that FLAC was specially developed for working with audio and significantly reduced the size of the source file.

Lossless = quality + flexibility

Audiophiles complain that the “cuts” in the MP3 codec are too heavy and that the quality is unacceptably affected. In contrast, the performance at FLAC corresponds 100% to the original “master”.

Added to this is the aspect of optimal data storage: FLAC supporters point out that a “ripped” CD in this format can later be recreated from the files themselves and that a bit-by-bit result is achieved that corresponds to the original. However, the same procedure used for MP3 extraction would produce a different, lower quality disc.

The disadvantages: size and compatibility

The disadvantage is that FLAC files in megabytes are much heavier than compressing them with MP3. Although the actual efficiency depends on the sound characteristics of the respective source, an average reduction of 40-50% can be expected: For example, an hour of audio ranges from approximately 600 MB of the uncompressed format to 300 MB in the optimal case

With MP3, compression is much more intensive – the same hour of compressed audio at 160 kbps (or very high quality anyway) is expected to be around 70 MB.

Then there is the compatibility problem: MP3 is natively compatible with any Smart TV, radio, PC, smartphone or media player that is still in circulation. FLAC, on the other hand, can only be played natively on Android, Linux and Windows 10. On the other platforms, if possible, you need to download a dedicated player or convert songs in advance.

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Flac vs Mp3, differences

In today’s world, it is important to understand the difference between the different audio files available.

The most common and current files are practically the files in the formats MP3, Flac and WAV.

Is there really a difference between MP3, Flac and WAV files? The answer is absolutely yes.

The difference is in the audio quality that these files can play.

What is the difference between MP3, Flac and Wav files? MP3 files are of lower quality because they are more compact and smaller. Flac files are a kind of compromise. With files in Flac format, it can be of very good quality and remain true to the original, which in any case is compressed by a certain percentage. Finally, there are the WAV files that do not use compression.

Therefore, the quality is better, but the size of these files is quite large, it is not compatible with any device these days.

It may not be easy to understand which audio file to use for your work, especially if you are a beginner in this area.

However, you don’t have to be afraid of it.

Once you’ve learned all the differences between the three audio files, you can really fix the problems by always using the appropriate file.

What are the differences between the categories in detail and when should you use a specific audio file?

Here’s a complete analysis for each audio file format that really helps you understand everything you need to know about MP3, Flac, and WAV files.

What is an MP3 file?
It starts with one of the most common files in the world of information technology, namely the one called MP3.

MP3 files have been around for years, so their development is common.

But what an MP3 file really represents.

Well, a general audio file is a series of numbers obtained by sampling the analog signal.

This scan responds to some parameters, which are the frequency measured in Khz and the resolution expressed in bits.

The MP3 file represents the most compressed form of an audio file, so to speak.

Finally, you need to understand that the MP3 file can remove all unnecessary parts of the digital file from the sequence and the final sampling, taking advantage of some imperfections of the human body to give it a clear and clean melody.

On the other hand, the MP3 file significantly reduces the quality of the sounds played.

In fact, all the different nuances of a certain melody come to the bone.

An MP3 is small if you speak it from the perspective of the memory. You should think of it as a kind of concentrate that gives you a remarkable but not 100% complete end result.

In the most extreme cases, an MP3 file can reduce the original tones and nuances of music or melodies to a percentage of 90%.

However, these formats are widely appreciated and used because they are not only practical and direct, but are now compatible with all technological devices, e.g. B. MP3 players, for which we recommend that you read our guide.

This means you can take them with you at any time and any product you have can read an MP3 file.

What is a flac file?
So at this point you need to understand what a Flac file is.

Well, it should be said that the Flac file has some major differences from its MP3 counterpart.

In fact, a Flac file is much more complex than a regular file and can be reduced by 90%.

First, you need to understand that Flac is actually an acronym that stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec.

It is always a format that is somewhat compressed, but files with this name have a certain property.

In fact, the file is lossless with no loss and maintains higher fidelity than the original sound.

With a Flac file, you have a clearer quality of the audio file, so you can clearly hear some details that can be lost if you use a different audio format.

The limited storage space when using the Flac format is very small and can reach a maximum of 50%.

However, when using such files, you should be aware that their use on the storage hard drive is important.

Not surprisingly, Flac files take up a lot more space than regular MP3s. In some cases, a special reader must be downloaded to read them. Many home theaters and receivers support this compression format.

Impossible to detect the difference between MP3 and FLAC

New comparative study carried out by experts debunks the myth that the FLAC sound (Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) or Codec free lossless audio compression, is considerably better than that obtained in MP3 or AAC files.

According to Wikipedia, FLAC is a format of the Ogg project to encode audio without loss of quality; that is, the initial file can be completely recomposed, although with the disadvantage that the resulting file takes up much more space than would be obtained by applying lossy compression.

Other formats, such as MP3 or ACC (Advanced Audio Coding), irreversibly lose part of the original information when compressing the file, in exchange for a great saving in file size.

The site Trusted Reviews has published an analysis called “Sounds Good to Me”, the conclusion of which is that there is no considerable difference in sound in FLAC and MP3, at least for the average user’s auditory perception.

In their study, Trusted Reviews made the assumption that there is a difference, and that people with developed hearing abilities could hear the difference between a 192 kbps MP3 file and a FLAC file, both obtained from the same original CD.

Only one user notices the difference between Mp3 and FLAC

The previous assumption was not confirmed in the facts, since among the seven people who participated in the analysis there was only one who detected the difference between FLAC and MP3. In many cases, MP3 at a rate of 192 kpbs had a higher score than FLAC.

This result was further strengthened when comparing 320 kbps MP3 files with FLAC files, since half answered correctly, and half were wrong. The percentage of participants who preferred MP3 was even higher.

The trial used an iBasso D3 Python USB DAC and Beyer Dynamic DT770 Pro headphones.

It should be noted that studies of this type have a certain margin of error. According to experts in comparisons such as the one carried out by Trusted Reviews, there are psychological factors, such as many users quickly forgetting their perception of what they have just heard, so the order in which the test is carried out is highly relevant. Non-expert users are also influenced by their mood and, in fact, by the music they listen to.

Audio quality in different formats (flac vs. mp3)

In this post I am going to talk about what differentiates music from mp3 and flac. First, and before you begin, go ahead with the following:

The quality of a musical hearing depends (and a lot) on the audio card and the musical equipment (amplifier, headphones / speakers) used, and on the other hand it also depends on the sensitivity of one’s ear. A newborn with perfect hearing can hear from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. The normal thing for a young person is to hear nothing above 18 kHz, although some people with exceptional hearing can hear 20 kHz or even more. , and a person 25 years of age or older begins to lose hearing from 15,000 – 16,000 Hz. In addition to the frequency response (quantitative aspect), the qualitative aspect is equally or more important: that the waves at each frequency are produced in the most similar way to the original source.

Having said that, we fully enter the subject at hand.

Many people think that an mp3 sounds like the quality of a CD. This is not exact. Apart from the fact that a CD sounds with the quality that those who have recorded it have given it, mp3s are formats with loss, and that means that a good part of the original information is discarded to save space. The trick is that the information that is discarded is, as a rule, information that is “hidden” among the rest of the information. To give a simple example so that the idea is understood, if a person is speaking to me at a normal volume and suddenly a helicopter passes in front of us, the sound of the helicopter will eclipse in my ears the voice of that person; the wave of his voice will continue to reach my ears but I will not perceive the sound. Another example, so that I am also understood: if we could play two very similar pianos at exactly the same time in such a way that their vibrations coincided, the mp3 would “say” that “one of the pianos is left over”. This type of operation (but, of course, at a much more subtle level, of microscopic changes) is what is done so that the initial 40 or 50 MB that a song occupies on the CD are reduced, at most, to 9 MB or less, depending on the bitrate (128, 160, 192, 256, 320 kbps) of the mp3.

But all that information that the mp3 removes at a stroke is information that, from the original source, would reach us, and it is information that would affect us emotionally (an mp3 violin can hardly give us goosebumps), although consciously most of the time we do not know how to express the difference in words. The same happens, for example, when a person is recreated in virtual reality: sooner or later we will know that this person is not real, because virtual reality technology has not yet managed to recreate the microscopic details that we are capable of capturing and that make us identify a person as real and not virtual.

Other differences between an mp3 and a wav (Microsoft’s uncompressed wave file) or a flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec, free lossless audio codec) are noticeable after spending a long time listening to music. The mp3 ends up giving you a headache, while the original sound doesn’t. And to this we must add that there are certain songs that have the musical information arranged in such a way that the mp3 algorithm is not able to “guess” what it is that you are not going to be able to listen to, and the result is that there is a notable loss quality, especially in the treble. In fact, a 128 kbps mp3 cuts all frequencies starting at around 15 kHz, and this is something that most people with normal hearing can easily perceive.

So that you can hear the REAL differences that exist between the different audio formats, I have prepared several tracks in which I have done the following:

1) I have loaded the song from the original disc.

2) I have recorded it in different formats: flac, mp3 to 128, mp3 to 160, mp3 to 192, mp3 to 256 and mp3 to 320 kbps.

3) I have then loaded all the waves into the Sound Forge Pro 10.0 program.

4) I have synchronized all the waves bit by bit. This is necessary because the mp3 introduces a certain lag of milliseconds with respect to the original.

5) I have copied each mp3 wave (lossy quality) and mixed it on the flac wave (original quality, without loss) with the reverse polarity. If both waves were identical, the result would be silence. But instead, as the mp3 has less information (the wave has fewer resolution points, so that it is understood) there is a residual noise that corresponds, neither more nor less, to what the mp3 has less than the flac added to what the mp3 has more than the flac (the mp3 not only loses information; it also introduces noise that was not in the original recording).

6) I have recorded everything on flac. Contrary to what most people think, the fact of converting an mp3 to a higher quality format does not add quality, since the additional information “cannot be invented” by the mp3, and it is still absent. An mp3 transferred to CD continues to sound like an mp3.

Important note: In order to listen to the files, your player must be able to play flac. First of all, associate the files with the .flac extension to your player so that it opens them when you click on them. If they still don’t sound, then install the necessary codec or plugin.

As a player I recommend the AIMP2 or the Foobar2000; both are free and give exceptional audio quality (they reproduce the sound as it is recorded, without any attachments of any kind). For my taste, the best of the two is the Foobar2000, because it is also more stable and lightweight. The Winamp and the Windows Media Player color the sound (or in other words, they equalize it), which can be interesting if you have low-quality audio equipment and play mp3s at low bitrate (128 kbps), but, If the equipment is hi-fi and the music is encoded in a lossless format or played directly from the original CD, then the difference between Winamp or WMP and AIMP2 or Foobar2000 is quite noticeable.