FLAC vs WAV


I have observed (heard and then tested so as to confirm) the following “condition” as it relates to the widely debated issue of FLAC quality. The purpose of this topic is to gather opinions as to whether or not your observations are similar too – and therefore support – my own.

It is widely understood and accepted that a FLAC file while “compressed” is “lossless” as compared to its corresponding WAV file. Let’s assume (i.e. not debate) this is completely true. What I am noticing is that when the FLAC file is “played” via any FLAC player it sounds different from the sound of the “same” (equivalent decompressed FLAC) WAV file when played back via the same player that was used to play the FLAC file. This is specifically noticeable (to me) in the low frequency spectrum. The WAV has considerably more “sonic energy” that manifests itself as appearing to be a bit louder, wider in frequency range and perhaps even dynamic range as compared to the FLAC equivalent.

I’m curious as to your findings when you compare a FLAC file played natively as compared to the WAV equivalent played via the same player (for example, play both the FLAC and WAV via VLC media player) or practical equivalent, such as if the FLAC was burned to CD and you are comparing the FLAC played via VLC and the CD played via a CD player.

I am further assuming that the WAV file is a more accurate representation of the audio than the FLAC. This is to say that should you agree with the aforementioned, it would be preferable to play the WAV file or decompress the FLAC file before using it.

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I too have noticed for a long time (first with PS audio PWD1/2 and now with thier DS) that flac does not sound as good as WAV or AIF. This was running first with Elyric and now Jriver on an old Mac pro and now a new Mac pro. Transcoding to wav on Elyric on the fly sounded better than streaming flac, but pre converting the flac to AIF file sounded the best. When I buy HD tracks now, I choose AIF.
none of this makes sense, except possibly the extra CPU overhead degrades the sound. Hard to believe with how much power my 6 core Mac pro has, but then again many things in this wacky hobby seem counter intuitive. (like the improvement I got with cat 6a ethernet replacing cat 5).