FLAC files

[drzinc]

I personally use .aiff right now. I'm gradually switching over from .flac. If you care about audio quality, it's definitely worth the switch!

Loss less is loss less, the reason I use flac is because it's an open source file format unlike WMA loss less or Aiff I do not like a file system that has restrictions imposed by their owners flac works across multiple operating systems unlike aiff which is controled by Apple who has decided to become what they were against, big brother.



Examples....
Made it illegal to jailbreak your phone, ipod ipad.
Must use their software to put music on a player/phone/tablet that you own.
Make buggy software for other OS
Made it illegal to put their OS on a non Apple computer.
The list is longer but i do not have the time...

[sephi]

I use WAV when I can get it, and "320s" when it's not available. FLAC is really cool, but it's not supported by the majority of pro gear. When it is, I'll probably switch to it instead of WAV.

[Sublim&All]

Up to now, all tracks I bought digitally were 320kbps mp3s. Never been able to hear the difference with a .wav, not really understanding how people would be able to notice the removal of frequencies, that they cannot hear in the first place, anyway.

IMO, most (popular) tracks released these days are mastered like shit from the beginning anyway, so it's not like it will get much more pleasurable to listen to when in a larger format...

[mostapha]

So, a little while ago, I got curious and made a 45-minute long ABX test (10 trials per song for 10 songs) of 320kbps mp3 vs. uncompressed wav. Very few people bothered, but here are the results.

DJF: no one took it.
Ableton Live DJ Forum: no one took it.
Gearslutz: no one took it, but people bitched for 200 posts about nothing.
DJ Tech Tools: 4 or 5 people took it, but I was the only one claiming to hear a difference going in…and I was the only one who statistically could hear a difference.

So…the results aren't the least bit conclusive……but most people won't hear a difference at normal listening volumes. In a club…the things that are lost are things people wouldn't listen for. I was actually disappointed, because I wanted there to be an obvious difference. Apparently knowing what to listen for sucks.

That being said, I buy AIFF when available and rip vinyl and CDs to flac. If I were worreid about disk space, I'd convert the aiff files to FLAC as well, but I'm too lazy and have enough disk space for the music I actually play.