Convert compressed flac to uncompressed?

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1

Hello,

I recently purchased a new K22 and I’m waiting for my pm893 ssd to arrive.

I have my entire music collection in various levels of flac compression stored on a backup drive. I’ve read that flac level 0 sounds best.

Would it benefit me to uncompress my flac files to flac level 0 and store them that way? Or would the extra conversion negate any benefits?

Thanks for any help!

2

As I understand it, the files will get decompressed regardless. Thus what it will come down to is whether uncompressing the file on the fly will degrade sound quality in ways that your ears can detect.

3

I agree.

The reason I ask is it seems antipodes recommends storing uncompressed flac files vs compressed flac.

I’m not sure if that is only beneficial if the file is ripped that way originally or if it’s beneficial to convert the already compressed flac files.

4

Every CD that I’ve ripped is stored in an uncompressed format. I chose AIFF, as it’s the best choice when using the Apple ecosystem.

I didn’t think that I could hear much of a difference between an uncompressed format like AIFF and a format that used lossless compression. I made that choice as a bet against the future as I thought maybe my system improved to the point where the difference is noticeable.

If lossless compression was used, uncompressing the file should get you back to the original uncompressed file. It should be as trustworthy as zipping and then unzipping a any other file. All bets are off though if lossy compression was used as that tosses out data.

5

Thanks Ken. I understand all of this already. Everything should be the same but it doesn’t seem that antipodes feels this way and neither do many audiophiles.

I’m curious about anyone who actually has tried uncompressed or level 0 flac compared to higher flac compression on their antipodes server. Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality?

6

Hello. Yes, the sound difference is there and clearly audible, pro FLAC Zero Compression. Personally, I only listen to WAV. WAV is even better than FLAC Zero Compression. But for some, the difference between WAV and FLAC Zero Compression is only marginal pro WAV. And yes, my K50 responds to these formats. And WAV is the best. Use FLAC Zero Compression. Also a reason why I don’t stream. Because I don’t like the sound of FLAC Standard 5. I buy everything in FLAC format and convert it to WAV with dbPoweramp. I ripped all my CDs in WAV format.

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7

Thanks Christian. I just ordered a larger 4tb Samsung pm893 ssd so I can uncompress my level 0 flac files.

I’ll have to find another use for the 2tb one arriving Monday! lol.

I also was reading that removing any embedded artwork also has an uptick in sound quality. Something else to try.

8

I along with many of my friends who are not even Mac users like I am seem to believe that AIFF files sound much better than FLAC. I have a K22 and K41 and both units support either format. Nothing to be gained by reformatting your entire library of course but something maybe to consider as you go forward if ripping or purchasing hi-res files online.

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9

Too late! I went a step further and completely decompressed the library. Took about 6.6 hours to do my entire library. You are correct about compressed flac vs aiff. I learned that even Level 0 flac is still compressed.

It cost me about 450gb of space but I can always buy more in the future.

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10

Not sure if this helps, but I can detect an increase in sound quality from aiff to flac to wav files. Not big differences, require a bit of focused listening, but the differences are there.