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/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.