From what I understand it is all about processor usage (noise generated), when you play compressed FLAC the file must be decompressed first which needs processor activity, which gives more noise... with WAV or 0 FLAC you don't have this.
I admit I was not aware of the 0 choice in Flac - so I did a little research. And embarrassingly, I found that the external ripper I use, dbPoweramp, actually goes a step further than zero for totally "uncompressed" -- and I never noticed it!
. This uncompressed flac file still goes through a decoding process, though. I ripped a CD and found the files are to be actually larger than the original wav files (due to the 4k header and the metadata I am told). I compared them to level 8 Flac and a wav file of the same track, along with a level 8 flac converted back to wav. I saw no difference at all. Granted, I did not take the time to do this "scientifically" although others have ... (superimposed the tracks in audacity to sample level is all I did)
However, simplified, I know not one player that does not "decode" to PCM stream into a buffer prior to playback (virtually the length of most songs). With memory playback in JRiver I believe will decode 1GB prior to playback (2? can someone confirm plz?), for info. There would be no real-time processor generated "noise" generated in the PCM stream if the player is set-up for bit-perfect processing to the dac. With old processors that couldn't even put one track's worth of PCM data into ram, I could see where this might be an issue.
From Well tempered Computer ArticleOn my PC, using Sysinternals Process Explorer (the benchmark tool for CPU usage analysis), playing a WAV file in Foobar required a scant 0.327 seconds of total CPU time from a single core of my multicore processor. This works out to about 0.2% CPU usage. Playing the exact same file in FLAC format, required 0.312 seconds of total CPU time—also about 0.2% CPU usage. These numbers are essentially the same, and the FLAC number is even slightly lower. Why? It’s likely because the CPU has to read half as much data with FLAC compared to WAV. But these numbers are so small, they really don't matter. Other background tasks in the operating system consume far more CPU than FLAC decoding.
NwAvGuy
Thanks Vincent btw excellent article]
The only obvious difference (to me) is the "encoding" time during the rip -- but I don't care about this personally.
And on my system, I hear difference between comp. and uncomp., it's not night day difference, but you hear something that I can't explain... as the music has some tension, and with uncomp. it's flowing freely.
I'm not going to touch that one .. sound quality is subjective. If one actually hears a difference or just perceives they hear a difference doesn't matter. It all about the music and your enjoyment of it. Happy Listening !