What's best quality music format?

[hippo]

Hi everyone, since capacity is longer an issue, which file format will produce the best quality music? any input greatly appreciated. Hippo

[VorTechS]

PhatNoise were always pushing FLAC as the best format to use on the PhatBox.

[S80_UK]

Yes - since the FLAC codec is truly lossless, when it is decoded in the box, the digital to analogue converter that drives the audio output sees the same data that was on the original source material (typically CD).  Note that if your material is already compressed into a lossy format such as MP3, there is no benefit in converting that to FLAC - it will just waste disk space.

[hippo]

Thanks guys!!!

[jlv]

I've always kept my FLAC originals off to the side, and then compressed them into MP3s, since the other MP3 players in the family were all small (the kids each had a 1G or 2G, and my wife had an older 30G Xen) and space was at a premium.  I never thought to go back to putting the FLAC on my Phatbox, now that I've got the space.  I'll give it a try!

[S80_UK]

I never thought to go back to putting the FLAC on my Phatbox, now that I've got the space.  I'll give it a try!

If your sound system and your ears are good enough then you will certainly notice the difference (and you don't need hi-fi "golden ears" - just the mark one originals in good working order).  It's a bit like having the "sparkle" put back into your music.  You almost certainly won't have noticed that it wasn't there, but when you can hear the difference, you won't want to go back to how it was before.

[VorTechS]

It's not just the sound quality, alledgedly if you have a lot of music obtained from Mix CDs - FLAC was quoted as the best format to use for gapless playback....