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Please move this to appropriate section if it's not in the right one. 

 

I'm thinking about purchasing a couple of Metallica albums from their site in FLAC-HD format. The site states that you get 3 times the fidelity of a normal CD. Here are my questions

1. Is this claim actually true and if so, how noticeable is it?

2. FLAC-HD isn't compatible with my Ipod. Which format would be comparable?  

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3 hours ago, Chris 55 said:

Please move this to appropriate section if it's not in the right one. 

 

I'm thinking about purchasing a couple of Metallica albums from their site in FLAC-HD format. The site states that you get 3 times the fidelity of a normal CD. Here are my questions

1. Is this claim actually true and if so, how noticeable is it?

2. FLAC-HD isn't compatible with my Ipod. Which format would be comparable?  

Not sure about the fidelity. Isn't the regular FLAC already losless and "good enough" to the human ears? I'm not sure it is that noticeable, but I'm pretty sure it really depends on your headphones to be able to run proper HD audio. 

About the format, I don't really know. AAC is too compressed?

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TL;DR FLAC-HD/ALAC-HD is unnecessary, FLAC/ALAC is perfect, 256kbps AAC (as all music on iTunes is) is good enough for listening.

Technically, yes: Hi-res (FLAC-HD) music has more fidelity. Hi-res music is everything above a bit depth of 16 bits (so 24 all the way to 64 bits) and a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz (48kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz, etc.), so if you look at a spectogram (http://spek.cc/), you will (hopefully, if the audio was recorded at that frequency) see frequencies going above and beyond superhuman levels. A lot of people claim that it sounds better.

BUT

1) You can't hear anything above 20kHz, so 44.1kHz (CD quality) is more than enough due to the nyquist theorem, therefore putting 44.1kHz FLAC files at a cap of approx. 22kHz.

2) 24-bit is not necessary for playback: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded.415361/.

Higher frequencies and bit depths are really useful if you're recording/mixing/mastering music, but not so much for listening to it. I, too, have had the chance to listen to Metallica's albums in FLAC-HD and can tell you that I cannot hear a difference, even though I own a sound card that works for audio up to 24-bit/192kHz. The only reason I even own some hi-res music is because some albums have better mastering that is only available for download as a higher resolution (see the HDTracks versions of: Yes - 90125, Green Day - American Idiot & 21st Century Breakdown).

What I suggest is the following: Get music, if you can as 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC (buying CDs & ripping them is the cheapest way) and convert it to whatever format you choose, whether it's MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, whatever or just keep it as FLAC. If you can't afford CDs or FLAC downloads or can't be bothered to convert formats I highly recommend 256kbps AAC (iTunes standard), as it delivers higher frequencies than a 320kbps MP3 and is more compact in size, so a way more efficient format and can be cheaply downloaded off of iTunes with the added bonus of getting a digital PDF booklet (which is the case with a lot of Metallica albums on that store) and videos.

Fore Metallica specifically I recommend the following downloads:

Master of Puppets 2016 remaster (not available in digital stores anymore)

And Justice for All 2018 remaster: https://www.metallica.com/store/and-justice-for-all-remastered-digital/REAJFADS.html

Death Magnetic 2015 remaster: https://www.metallica.com/death-magnetic/death-magnetic-digital-download/9422.html

Download as FLAC-HD if you really feel the need to, but scientifically, FLAC is enough.

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  • 2 weeks later...
14 hours ago, Chris 55 said:

I used easy CD extractor to rip cd's/audio convert normally but it's kinda pricey. What do you guys use?

If you really want to ensure the perfect quality CD ripping, I recommend EAC: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/, but for some reason it sometimes crashes for me, so I instead use the free version of dBpoweramp: https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm

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ALAC is Apple's lossless format. You can convert FLAC to ALAC using dbpoweramp music converter.

I wish Apple would adapt FLAC playback. I hate how restrictive their universe is. Being an iPhone user and preferring iTunes as my music player (Ive yet to find another whose interface i'm satisfied with) but preferring FLAC as an archiving format, im basically forced into creating another copy of my music into a different format just so i can listen to it. It takes up a ton of space.

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