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MP3, FLAC, WAV and other digital audio formats

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MP3, FLAC, WAV and others: digital audio formats, from compression to high definition

Let’s try to take some marks in the jungle in digital audio formats …
For a few months, Neil Young has opened a public debate on the quality of digital music, made a crusade against MP3 and announced his project to launch Pono, a portable music player dedicated to reading digital files in Very High Definition. . In addition to the sarcasm that is already on fire, as Trent Reznor compares Pono’s design to a Toblerone, one might wonder if this hype is not the implementation of a beautiful marketing operation, inspired by Dr. Their success Beats helmets?

Neil Young presents his Pono on the David Letterman show

Because the prophecy announced by Neil Young has already been fulfilled: audiophile digital music players are there: we can especially mention music players from the manufacturers Sony (Japan), Cowon, Astell & Kern (Korea) or Fiio (China), HifiMAN (USA) ), Colorfly (Germany). This type of player’s contribution is to reproduce high quality files.
Add to this that the latest generation of Android smartphones can also play high-resolution files with the appropriate player (Poweramp type, Neutron Music Player). Likewise, the latest generation of Apple products (Iphone, Ipad, Ipod) are partially compatible with HD audio (today with up to 24 bit / 48 kHz resolution with ALAC, AIFF, WAV formats).

Sony, Fiio, Cowon brand audio players

CD quality / High resolution, what difference does it make?
The audio files on a CD are encoded in 16 bits at a frequency of 44 kHz.
High resolution (or high definition) files (such as SA-CD or Blu-ray Pure Audio) are in 24-bit frequency 44, 48, 88, 96 or 192 kHz
What does it mean?
16 bits – 44 kHz = 65,536 bits (2 at the effect of 16) x 44,100 Herz x 2 (stereo) per Second
24 bit – 192 kHz = 16,777,216 bits (2 at the power of 24) x 192,000 Herz x 2 (stereo) per second So,
an hour of high-resolution music takes over 2 GB vs. 635 MB for CD quality
. We measure the gap in information volume and computing power between a CD quality file and a high-definition file.

Which format should you choose?

We must first distinguish between:

Tabbed compression formats: MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA
Lossless or compression-free compressed formats: AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, DSD, mono sound, lossless WMA
Today, if we are looking for sound quality, we have to choose from 3 requirements:

-High quality: MP3 from 196 to 320 kb / s, AAC from 128 to 256 kb / s, OGG vorbis from 160 to 320 kb / s

Loss without CD quality: FLAC, ALAC, WMA, WAV, AIFF (16 bit – 44.1 kHz)

– High resolution quality: FLAC, ALAC, WMA, WAV, AIFF, DSD (24-bit – 44, 48, 88, 96, 192 kHz)
Choosing MP3 encoding at 320 kbs or FLAC (16-bit – 44.1 kHz) seems like a good compromise.

And streaming?

Audio format selection is also important for streaming platforms (especially as it is subject to bandwidth and bandwidth limitations):

Deezer uses MP3 format with 2 quality levels:

128 Kbits / s for the free version,
320 Kbits / s (HQ audio) for the paid version of the transmission

Qobuz uses 2 formats:

MP3 at 320 MHz for your “premium” service and
CD quality FLAC (16 bit 44.1 kHz) for Hi-Fi option
(Qobuz also sells 24-bit master study quality files ranging from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz in WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, lossless WMA format)

Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis format for streaming with three quality levels:
96 kbps: Spotify app “Low Speed” setting
160kbps: standard transmission quality for the mobile application / “High quality” setting of the mobile application
320 kbps: “High quality” setting available in Spotify Premium / “Extreme Quality” setting of mobile app (currently available on iOS and Android only)

YouTube uses the AAC audio format at 128 or 192 kbps to transfer the sound of medium and high resolution videos (and also 64 kbps MP3, to low resolution videos) (source)

Equip yourself with a portable listening system

Equipping yourself with a hi-fi player means paying attention to all the elements of the “chain”: the quality of the initial recording, encoded file, streaming material, software (player) and headphones. . This requires a comparative and empirical approach to evaluate each parameter separately. For example, if you Can listen to 24-bit 88Mhz files with an Android smartphone, the rendering is not the same, depending on the choice of audio playback application

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

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.

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.