There are several formats you can choose from when you want to rip your CDs. MP3 is the most popular format, while FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a lesser known alternative. The main difference between the two is the way they compress the audio information. Mp3 is a lossy format in which parts of the audio information are people probably won’t hear it, it gets thrown away. On the other hand, as the name suggests, FLAC is lossless, which means that it would keep all the information about the audio and nothing would be thrown away.<\/p>\n
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The biggest consequence of the lossy \/ lossless difference is the magnitude of the corresponding size. While both are significantly smaller than uncompressed audio, MP3 files will likely be about 20% larger than their equivalent FLAC files. is very important on portable devices where space is often a big issue. FLAC advantage nothing is lost no matter how many times you compress and unzip the file. With MP3, the sound quality would deteriorate due to the way the algorithm works.<\/p>\n
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The small MP3 file size is also one of the main factors why it has become so popular. It was the codec of choice when the first SSD music players appeared; dubbed as MP3 players. Even today, MP3 is still very popular and almost all devices that can play digital music can recognize and play MP3 files. With FLAC, the number of devices capable of playing FLAC files is very small. The ability to play FLAC files can often only be seen on high-end devices, where the sound quality can really be appreciated.<\/p>\n
Another aspect in which the two formats differ is royalties. Although MP3 is widely used, few know that it is a proprietary format and that royalties are required to use this format. However, people don’t have to worry because it is the device manufacturer who pays the royalties for using the MP3 format. FLAC is royalty-free software that anyone can use without paying for it. The author intended it to be free from the start.<\/p>\n
Resume:<\/p>\n
1. MP3 is a lossy encoding algorithm while FLAC is a lossless encoding algorithm<\/p>\n
2 is. MP3 files are probably 20% the size of the same FLAC-encoded file<\/p>\n
3. MP3 has a broader hardware support compared to FLAC<\/p>\n
4. MP3 is a proprietary format, while FLAC is not copyrighted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"