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[wileydog]

Not really a tech support question but....Using the AVS Audio Converter (3rd party software), I converted some FLAC files to WAV.  The bit rate increased almost 10 fold (and so did the file size).  With my laptop speakers, and until I can get back to my home rig, I can't really tell the difference in sound.  Did I stumble upon a sneaky way of getting audiophile quality from a normal CD quality download or did I stumble upon a good way to fill up my hard drive in a hurry?

[BryanC]

Does the word "lossless" mean anything to you?

[nwboater]

There are a few audiophiles that swear they can hear an improvement in sound quality with WAV. But most of us, including a lot of people with some very high quality systems are very happy with FLAC.

Rod

[DarkPenguin]

Not really a tech support question but....Using the AVS Audio Converter (3rd party software), I converted some FLAC files to WAV.  The bit rate increased almost 10 fold (and so did the file size).  With my laptop speakers, and until I can get back to my home rig, I can't really tell the difference in sound.  Did I stumble upon a sneaky way of getting audiophile quality from a normal CD quality download or did I stumble upon a good way to fill up my hard drive in a hurry?

Where do you suppose this extra "quality" came from if it wasn't from the FLAC file?  You're filling up your hard drive.

[Hendrik]

Not really a tech support question but....Using the AVS Audio Converter (3rd party software), I converted some FLAC files to WAV.  The bit rate increased almost 10 fold (and so did the file size).  With my laptop speakers, and until I can get back to my home rig, I can't really tell the difference in sound.  Did I stumble upon a sneaky way of getting audiophile quality from a normal CD quality download or did I stumble upon a good way to fill up my hard drive in a hurry?

FLAC is a lossless compression, and WAV is an uncompressed format. In other words, FLAC is like ZIP for audio, you can compress a file, and then uncompress it again, and you get 100% exactly the same file back out again.
WAV is uncompressed audio. Its really just a waste of space, because once decoded FLAC will result in exactly the same audio.

[wileydog]

Appreciate the feedback.  The only benefit to converting FLAC to WAV might be to get the same quality onto an IPOD for docking to a Wadia iTransport or the like.

[Vincent Kars]

, I converted some FLAC files to WAV.  The bit rate increased almost 10 fold (and so did the file size). 

Normally when a CD is converted to FLAC it has a (variable) bit rate around 600 kbs.
CD= 16 bit / 44.1 kHz in WAV has a fixed bit rate of 1411 Kbit/s.
File size is reduced by approximately 40%
If you see a 10 fold you have probably done something more than plain converting like changing the bit depth to 24 bit and/or increasing the sample rate.

http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/KB/Flac.htm

[Listener]

Not really a tech support question but....Using the AVS Audio Converter (3rd party software), I converted some FLAC files to WAV.  The bit rate increased almost 10 fold (and so did the file size).

The bit rate of MP3 files does relate to audio quality.  The bit rate for Flac files or another lossless format like APE or ALAC is not an indication of audio quality.  After the Flac file is unpacked, the amount of data going to the audio output device will be same as for the corresponding WAV file.

The factor of 10 you saw is unusual.  A ratio of 1.5 to 3 is more normal.

By the way, did you realize that JRiver MC can convert files from one format to another?

Bill

[Vocalpoint]

Appreciate the feedback.  The only benefit to converting FLAC to WAV might be to get the same quality onto an IPOD for docking to a Wadia iTransport or the like.

The huge destructive downside to this conversion is the instant destruction of your metadata tags as wav files are useless for storing any sort of meaningful tag data.

As many of mentioned - FLAC is where it's at. There is no reason at all to ever decompress them - especially if MC is handling audio playback for you.

If you want the same quality for the Wadia etc...convert FLAC to Apple lossless and preserve your tag data and your sanity

VP

[JimH]

MC supports optional WAV tagging:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WAV_%26_AIFF_Tagging

[Alex B]

The only benefit to converting FLAC to WAV might be to get the same quality onto an IPOD for docking to a Wadia iTransport or the like.

As Vocalpoint said, a sensible thing to do would be to convert to Apple Lossless aka ALAC.

You can configure MC to use an external ALAC encoder and do the format conversions inside MC:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=59513.msg453941#msg453941

[Vocalpoint]

MC supports optional WAV tagging: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WAV_%26_AIFF_Tagging

Unfortunately - not a lot - if any -other programs do. Therefore - risking wav and then moving your files to another playback platform could easily leave you tag "challenged" again

VP

[PAPETOURNE]

I just installed JRiver MC onto my NAS QNAP 251HS+ I noticed  that FLAC files are converted into WAV whereas in the explorer the files are in FLAC. I tried to reconvert them form JRiver option. the conversion failed. someone can explain this ? is this a bug ? or JRiver want to improve the audio ?