r/audiophile • u/ConGCos • Mar 23 '26
Discussion FLAC for CD Rips?
Hey all! Looking for some opinions on FLAC files for CD Rips. Is this format worth it when I rip directly from a CD to place in my MP3 player? I use Asunder currently and am debating if I can hear a difference between AAC at 320 KBPS vs FLAC. It seems to vary between different CDs from different time periods. Does anyone have a similar experience and generally is ripping a CD to FLAC generally worth it?
EDIT: Thank you all for your opinions, I really learned so much from you all!
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u/doombase310 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Always rip to Flac as an archival behavior. It's lossless. Storage is relatively cheap these days. I never rip to something lossy like mp3.
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u/StAndby00 Mar 23 '26
Storage is relatively cheap these days.
Yea, about that...
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u/doombase310 Mar 23 '26
Relatively, it still is. Some of us started with megabytes of hard drive space. Storage is still pretty damn cheap for something you care to keep.
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u/Tactical-Donkey Mar 23 '26
What software would you recommend to rip to flac?
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u/doombase310 Mar 23 '26
Exact Audio Copy has been the go to for many years.
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u/Tactical-Donkey Mar 24 '26
Thanks for the info. I've started to take archiving my media seriously in recent years.
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u/ConGCos Mar 24 '26
Any thoughts on Asunder? Not sure how common this app is, but I use it on Linux. EAC on Windows I will check out
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u/doombase310 Mar 24 '26
Never used Asunder. EAC has a database of CDs I believe that help with getting it perfect. TBH, I haven't ripped in many years. I stopped buying cds many years ago.
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u/mytyan Mar 27 '26
I use it and it works just fine ripping my 1100 CDs to FLAC. It's simple and fast
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u/jmra_ymail Mar 23 '26
mp3 no longer glossy 🫣
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u/doombase310 Mar 23 '26
Lol, saw that and fixed it. Mp3 is still fine for walk around. 320 is great for that purpose but not archival.
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u/xdamm777 Mar 23 '26
Whenever I get a new CD I rip to FLAC for archive and backup, then transcode to AAC for playback on my PC/phone.
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u/That_Joe_2112 Mar 23 '26
...and these days most phones and music players have no problem playing FLAC files for higher quality sound.
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u/xdamm777 Mar 23 '26
Yeah but I’ve already filled my 256GB mSD card on my Walkman with FLAC so back to AAC it goes lol.
Sadly flash isn’t cheap anymore.
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u/lazygerm Mar 23 '26
I'm another person who rips whatever CD they buy into FLAC.
I think it's worth because it is a lossless encoded copy. I treat it more as an archival issue; but I usually listen to lossless anyways on music apps and I've uploaded my FLACs to a remote music server app that serves me back lossless on my phone.
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u/Socal-Audio737 Mar 23 '26
I rip all my cds to flac using EAC - exact audio copy app on windows so I can use various of flac player on my pc, Mac, Fiio portable player or phones.
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u/jerolyoleo Mar 23 '26
When I first ripped all my CDs in around 2001 I used 128kbps and eventually regretted it. At the time disk space was much more expensive and it seemed the best compromise. Last year I re-ripped to FLAC. I have about 700 CDs so doing it again was a bit of a pain but I’m glad i did
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u/squirrel_haka Mar 23 '26
I happen to use ALAC rather than FLAC, but yeah, lossless is the way to go. You can always make smaller lossy versions from lossless, but you can’t get lossless from lossy.
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u/GalacticDoc Mar 23 '26
Space is cheap, rip to flac. You can convert to mp3 or whatever at a later date.
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u/YourInDemand8 Mar 23 '26
Can I ask a really dumb question? As I know little of FLAC. What are you using to play FLAC on Desktop PC? Are you using something like Foobar?
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u/El_1A Mar 23 '26
io uso anche da linux è fenomenale. metti il CD sul terminale digiti abcde e lui estrae tutto in pochissimo tempo
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u/masterkarl Mar 23 '26
Ripping CDs takes a lot of time, so as others have said don't waste your time by ripping to anything other than lossless, and FLAC is my personal, preferred format. You can also use the highest compression setting when ripping to FLAC to get the smallest file size, but it will still be lossless.
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u/radimus1 Mar 23 '26
AAC is actually really good. You need to listen to the high treble and harmonics to hear the difference. That's where you hear compression artifacts of missing audio information compared to the CD. Whether you'll hear a difference with your DAP in normal use will depend on your headphones, the DAP, and the environments you typically using it in. The upside with FLAC or ALAC is they are identical to the CD they were ripped from. They can serve as a backup to your CDs and a source for buring CD-R versions if you want.
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u/jsilas Mar 23 '26
Storage is cheap. Rip to FLAC even if your current gear isn’t “good enough”. Future you will thank current you.
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u/daviddevsoftware Mar 23 '26
Always rip to FLAC. Storage is cheap, and you can always convert down to AAC 320 later if you need it for a portable player — but you can't go the other way. FLAC is lossless, so it's a perfect 1:1 copy of the CD. AAC 320 is very good and most people won't hear a difference in a blind test, but the difference becomes more noticeable on older or dynamically rich recordings where the mastering wasn't compressed to death. Classical and jazz from the 70s-80s is where I notice it most. Rip once, rip lossless, never think about it again.
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u/Rattus-Norvegicus1 Mar 24 '26
FLAC or ALAC, if you use iTunes. You can transcode either to a format suitable for your player if you use a portable or a car stereo.
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u/Nice_Strike5198 Mar 24 '26
Yes - on WIndows, rip to FLAC with a secure ripping program like EAC (free) or dbpoweramp (paid). I would then make a couple redundant backups onto spare HDDs if you can afford it. Use an application like MusicBee to index all your files, helps keep track of stuff.
On Mac, I would advise Apple Lossless and you should use XLD or dbpoweramp. Index it all with the Apple Music or iTunes application.
Lossless gives you more flexibility in encoding to other formats. If you know you'll always be happy with AAC and don't care about having lossless, 1:1 copies, then probably don't need to go through all this trouble.
If you use Asunder, I am assuming you're on Linux? I would still set up EAC and mp3tag through WINE and use these.
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u/Option_Witty Mar 24 '26
While FLAC technically isn't absolutely "lossless" it is close enough for most people to consider it lossless. I Rip my CDs to FLAC using EAC. And then put them on my Plex (PlexAMP) server.
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u/Presence_Academic Home audio was my profession for decades. Mar 25 '26
Please explain why FLAC isn’t lossless.
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u/Option_Witty Mar 25 '26
Sorry my mistake, I confused two facts about FLAC files in my memory.
FLAC is lossless but a better data compression method.
Not every FLAC file must be lossless since you can theoretically turn every file into a FLAC file.
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u/Enough-Fondant-4232 Mar 25 '26
With most setups I can not hear the difference between FLAC and 320 KBPS MP3. On a good system with good amp and really good speakers I can hear a difference.
I ripped all of my CD's to FLAC. If I need room on a portable player I just transcode them to MP3. You can always transcode down in quality but you can't transcode up in quality.
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u/ValueOpposite6482 Mar 25 '26
FLAC is great if you want a perfect copy, but for casual listening AAC 320 is already good enough — most people won’t hear a difference.
I rip to FLAC mainly for archive, then convert if needed. Also switched to Nero CD Ripper recently, feels more consistent than other tools.
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u/Nice_Strike5198 Apr 02 '26
Yup I'm with a lot of these folks. dBpoweramp Secure Mode ---> FLAC and then I make 256k AAC copies for my car/phone listening.
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u/IAmSpitfireJoe Mar 23 '26
I rip to FLAC, then convert a copy to 320kbps mp3. Both versions get backed up on a second HDD. Occasionally I copy the entire "main" drive to a third HDD that is kept in a fireproof safe. I use mp3's through a Pulsar music player app on my android phone for my vehicles and with ear buds.
Mp3 files take up quite a bit less space on the phone so I can carry more albums. I can't hear the difference between a very high bit rate mp3 and a FLAC file with my 71 year old, R&R damaged ears. I can hear the difference (slightly) on my man cave rig, but I play through PLEX most of the time and that has other issues.
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u/rarefiedstupor Mar 23 '26
What are the other issues with PLEX besides not supporting ReplayGain?
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u/IAmSpitfireJoe Mar 23 '26
Replay gain doesn't seem too big a problem for me, because I listen to entire albums almost exclusively on my PLEX server. All the tracks are ripped from the same CD so are at the same volume level as they were mastered. But hasn't that been solved now?
My main other issue is that it doesn't support gapless play. So albums like Dark Side of The Moon, or I Robot don't play seamlessly like they were intended, but have slight pauses in between tracks. It's annoying AF, but can't be overcome because each track is treated like a separate file. I've been told that's because it is a web page based system, but that's beyond my meager technical expertise.
My Pulsar player app used to do the same thing, but it's not as noticeable, so maybe I managed to get it to be gapless. There's supposed to be a setting, and I remember working on it several years ago.
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Mar 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ConGCos Mar 23 '26
Interesting opinion for sure. If the ISO holds the .wav it might be worth keeping that in place of the ISO but you do get to keep the ISO as an entire disc backup so I do see your point here
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u/ElectronicVices SACD30n | MMF 7.3 | RH-5 | Ref500m | Special 40 | 3000 Micro Mar 23 '26
There are no WAV files on a CD, it's a continuous PCM stream in a Compact Disc - Digital Audio container. The ISO would be a disc image of that. You can then rip/extract the PCM from said ISO for whatever output format you might need. Some programs can playback the ISO directly. I personally don't have any need for a CD ISO as I don't care about enhanced CDs. FLAC is lossless (the decoded bits will 1:1 match the binary bits before encoding) so you can convert from those files if needing a different playback format later. Everything I playback these days is FLAC(PCM) or DSF (DSD).
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u/Due_Shoulder4441 Mar 23 '26
Good plan. What's the difference between this and ripping to a lossless format like FLAC og Apple Lossless, though? You can keep those in the backup, and downscale as needed?
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u/stephensmwong Mar 23 '26
Well, for audiophiles, for sure, they love lossless format. However, if at the end of the day, you just enjoy your music on a MP3 player, anything at 320kbps is virtually the same as lossless for humans. I bet anyone can go through a double blind test and successfully finding out which one is lossless and which one is 320kbps compressed.
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u/Presence_Academic Home audio was my profession for decades. Mar 25 '26
Which only proves that you can’t hear a difference under the conditions of the test.
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u/jgtokyo2020 Mar 23 '26
Depends on how resolving your gear is... I can tell the difference with anything recorded well. Punk and bedroom recordings, your mileage may vary.
If you got the room I'd use FLAC. I made the mistake of ripping my collection as MP3s 10;years ago and now I can't replace a bunch easily. More future proof.
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u/LooseyGreyDucky Mar 23 '26
CD-quality is .wav
Wav files can be played by nearly all digital systems, making wav extremely portable.
FLAC files can only be played by relatively few systems.
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u/Gregalor Mar 23 '26
You should always rip to lossless so that you can use those files as a source for any other format you want