What is the FLAC audio format?
To listen to your favorite music in the highest quality, you need two things: the right equipment and the audio format. The recording format indicates the quality. In forums, people often discuss which format is the best. The most popular formats degrade sound quality. In this article, we will guide you about the FLAC audio format.
Characteristics of the FLAC audio format.
FLAC is a free lossless audio codec. This stands for the abbreviation Free Lossless Audio Codec. The codec reduces file size by 50% compared to a similar quality audio CD.
The FLAC format is compatible with many smartphone applications and portable audio players.
Another feature of the FLAC codec is that it is free and distributed under the GNU GPL. This means that any audio maker or music publisher can use it for free.
How is FLAC different from lossy compression formats?
Other audio codecs compress lossy files (MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, Opus). FLAC does not remove any information from the audio stream. It is suitable for listening to music on high-quality equipment and for archiving your music collection.
Lossy codecs, such as MP3, simplify the signal to reduce file sizes. That is, some data that the codec considers less significant and barely audible is erased. As a result, music loses detail, sound becomes drier and thinner at high frequencies. Consequently, the audio signal is roughly the same as in the photo, which was first compressed from 8 to 2 megapixels and then stretched to 8 megapixels. Despite returning to the original size, the original clarity of the image will no longer be.
Lossy compression in the example of a photograph.
The FLAC format works differently. It does not change the audio stream. AudioCD music is recorded similarly, but FLAC compresses the track to reduce its size in megabytes. For compression, the same principles are used as for creating RAR or ZIP archives. In other words, in the digital recording itself there are patterns that are recorded in a simplified way, but that can be restored to their original form by decompressing them.
The FLAC compression algorithm, unlike ZIP algorithms, divides the file into small blocks, several kilobytes in size. For each of the blocks, the optimal compression formula is selected, so if an audio CD (700MB) is simply archived in ZIP, it will take 550-650MB, and in FLAC, you can achieve a reduction to 350- 500 MB. At the same time, the signal quality does not deteriorate.
What smartphones are FLAC compatible?
Support for music in the FLAC codec is almost on any modern smartphone.
Current microcircuits of the middle class are equipped with a fairly advanced built-in codec. It is capable of playing high definition Loseless music up to 192 kHz. Such solutions allow to remove the load from the central processor, reducing battery consumption, but a weak sound path can impose restrictions on the sound quality at the output.
Best of all, smartphones with a discrete decoder and DAC, made separately from the chipset, can play music in FLAC format. These include the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy A, S and Note series, LG G and V series, Sony Xperia. Also, a discrete DAC that provides effective decoding of the FLAC codec is found in many BBK devices (Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus), LeEco, Meizu flagships.
