The more interesting point of this article seems to be that both Flac and Wav are sonically adulterated by metadata during playback to the extent that fidelity is somewhat harmed. A significant portion of my digital library contains flac files downloaded from Allflac.com and converted in JRiver to Wav. Now that Allflac accepts only bitcoin from overseas customers I just use Quobuz - downloading their Wav files into JRiver and then burning to CD's for my transport. A useful conclusion for my situation would seem be that I not include files such as "cover art" in the download since it appears in the article's graphs to pollute the sonic data.
Why do Wav and Flac Files Sound Different?
This article is from 2016, so outfits like JRiver may have developed workarounds for the metadata/sound quality issues sussed out below. Inquiring minds want to know.
Why Do WAV And FLAC Files Sound Different?
"Based on these results, we attempted to pinpoint which section of the metadata might be responsible. Since the cover art file associated with the metadata is the largest contributor to the metadata header size, we began by examining the effect of deleting cover art prior to the WAV-to-FLAC-to-WAV conversion protocol. This proved fortuitous, as our first suspicion proved correct."
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