2. digital
  3. 156968-116029

has anybody else noticed this about flac audio?

o.k are you ready for some truth friends ? flac has compression levels from 0 to 8 with the official flac default level being 5. now flac is lossless compression so there should be no sound loss from the original source no matter what compression level you use however if you encode the same song using every different flac compression level even though they will all be lossless there absolutely is a difference in the overall sound including tone and sound stage from level to level and doing your own test will only prove me right. now here’s where it gets strange? vintage vinyl has stereo + stereo depth perception (3d sound stage).digital audio has stereo + mono depth perception (2d sound stage) and this includes all new remastered vinyl cut from the digital master. this is why digital audio does not sound like vintage vinyl along with brick wall compression.i find it odd that the only flac compression level not recommended as a default no matter what software you use is flac compression level 4 ? it just so happens that re-encoding digital audio to flac with compression level 4 converts digital mono depth perception back into digital stereo depth perception (3d sound stage) just like vintage vinyl! and i don’t think this is by mistake friends ? do your own test and get ready to have your mind blown. here is an audio sample: level 5 http://pc.cd/pCcrtalK level 4 http://pc.cd/iVWrtalK
guitarsam

Showing 1 response by 8th-note

8th-note
349 posts
 
Regarding the difference in sound between vinyl and digital, what you are really hearing is a whole constellation of differences between your turntable and your digital player/converter. To start with it is highly likely that there is a frequency response difference between your cartridge and your digital gear. Cartridges are notoriously not flat in frequency response. This alone could explain what you are hearing. I've never encountered your theory (second vs. third soundstage) in all my years of geeking out on such things. In my own case my vinyl rig sounds remarkably similar to my digital rig with excellent imaging in both formats.

I'm about 2/3 through ripping my 4000+ CD collection. I decided at the outset to use dbPoweramp with no compression. Hard drive space is cheap and I wanted to make life as easy as possible on my digital gear. I did this even though I ripped a couple of CDs at different compression levels to see if I could hear the difference between compression level 5 and no compression. I couldn't hear any difference (files played through Foobar on i7 laptop, Windows 7, USB cable, PS Audio PerfectWave Mk II DAC, Krell pre and amp, Thiel CS6 speakers).

IMO what you are hearing on your system is unusual and bears further investigation. I think it's likely that different gear, including your computer, would alter this situation. FWIW I don't agree with your theories of why this is happening but I don't doubt that you hear what you claim.
More to discover