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[Sgt Rock]

Greetings,

I'm in the process of re-ripping my cd collection (previously Mp3) and have been playing with WAV and FLAC settings in an effort to determine which format I like best.  After reading a recent post here on J River, I believe the best option based on the very good discussions will be FLAC.

But, I have a question regarding the displayed bitrate shown in J River's display.  The WAV files always show a bitrate of 1411 while the FLAC files are showing lower and varying bitrates across many tracks.  When playing the various tracks, both WAV and FLAC, the "Display" at the top the JR Media Center shows playback is at 44.1 kHz.  So, I assume as a laymen that regardless of the shown bitrate in the rip, they are both being played at a 1411 (cd quality) bitrate and the audio quality is therefore identical.

Am I correct in this assumption, and if so, why does the FLAC track info show lower and differing bitrates verses the WAV files?  Does this matter?

Also, I ripped several disks with a FLAC compression setting of "6" and again at "0" looking for the change in size - both settings ripped to the same size.  Shouldn't the tracks ripped at "6" be smaller then the tracks ripped at "0"?

Thanks for your comments,
Rock

[Matt]

Am I correct in this assumption, and if so, why does the FLAC track info show lower and differing bitrates verses the WAV files?  Does this matter?

FLAC (and APE, ALAC, etc.) use less space and deliver the same quality.  So it's normal to see a lower bitrate than 1411 -- that's the space savings of lossless compression.

[6233638]

Bitrate is basically file size divided by time.
As long as you are using a lossless compression scheme, bitrate is not an indicator of quality. The higher the compression, the lower the bitrate will be.
 
With lossy formats such as MP3 and AAC, it's a general indicator of quality, though AAC is more efficient and requires a lower bitrate than MP3 for the same perceptual sound quality.

[astromo]

I use the highest compression setting when ripping and configure MC to play from memory.

Works for me.. 

[52girl52]

I missed the answer to the question: Also, I ripped several disks with a FLAC compression setting of "6" and again at "0" looking for the change in size - both settings ripped to the same size.  Shouldn't the tracks ripped at "6" be smaller then the tracks ripped at "0"?

I would think so but which is the 'better' quality setting '0' or '6'? I don't know but if the size of the file is the same; why even offer this option in the first place?

[Matt]

I missed the answer to the question: Also, I ripped several disks with a FLAC compression setting of "6" and again at "0" looking for the change in size - both settings ripped to the same size.  Shouldn't the tracks ripped at "6" be smaller then the tracks ripped at "0"?

Yes.  It's completely independent of quality -- which is perfect in all lossless modes.

[Lefisu63]

I missed the answer to the question: Also, I ripped several disks with a FLAC compression setting of "6" and again at "0" looking for the change in size - both settings ripped to the same size.  Shouldn't the tracks ripped at "6" be smaller then the tracks ripped at "0"?

I would think so but which is the 'better' quality setting '0' or '6'? I don't know but if the size of the file is the same; why even offer this option in the first place?

If the music data allows the "higher" algorithm to compress more, then the file size is less. If it is not possible the file size does not change.

You can compress normal data with zip at a lower level (bigger file size, short compression time) and at a higher level (lower file size, long compression time). The content of zip - the files - does not change. The same for the music of course.

You have to play around what is ok for you.

Re-compression from lower level to higher level or the other way does not change the sound quality (when using lossless formats as source and destination)!

[Sgt Rock]

Hi all,

Just a quick follow-up and reply to 52girl52 and to confirm Lefisu63's post.

First, Thanks to all who posted answers to my questions.  Much appreciated.

Over the last week I have continued to rip multiple tracks, and yes, as Lefisu63 stated, the size of files ripped at "0" and "6" have varied noticeably depending on the type of music.

My first rips, which spurred my question where more complex sound tracks and the file sizes where identical.  As I expanded my samplings into basic Rock and Country, the file sizes changed dramatically between FLAC settings "0" and "6" with the "6" obviously being smaller but still varying between music types.

Always something new.

Thanks again,
Rock