FLAC question

gongos · « **on:** 24 Sep 2005, 07:19 pm »

Why is it that when I play a .wav file with foobar it's always at kbps, but the same .flac file fluctuates between 500 and 1200kbps? Am I experiencing a loss of quality because of this? Thanks.

dogberry · « **Reply #1 on:** 24 Sep 2005, 11:09 pm »

Because FLAC files are compressed (lossless though) and WAV files are not, so they don't fluctuate in bandwidth (one of the ways the files are shrunk down).

gongos · « **Reply #2 on:** 24 Sep 2005, 11:24 pm »

But is there a loss in sound quality?

mgalusha · « **Reply #3 on:** 24 Sep 2005, 11:28 pm »

Quote from: gongos

But is there a loss in sound quality?

No. The variation in bit rates is due to how much flac was able to compress the file. Complex data is harder to compress, so the less compression, the higher the bit rate. Once unpacked it's restored to the original wav file, bit perfect.

BradJudy · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Sep 2005, 03:30 am »

As pointed out, FLAC is a bit-perfect compression - kind of like an on-the-fly zip file for audio.

To see some basic images that show how some compression affects music and that lossless ones do not, take a look at these posts I made:

http://www.bradjudy.com/audioblog/2005/09/11/affects-of-data-compression-on-frequency-content/

http://www.bradjudy.com/audioblog/2005/09/12/more-compression-spectrum-analysis/

gongos · « **Reply #5 on:** 25 Sep 2005, 03:34 am »

So what I'm seeing is the extent flac was able compress the file without losing any info.

sas · « **Reply #6 on:** 25 Sep 2005, 11:00 am »

Quote from: gongos

So what I'm seeing is the extent flac was able compress the file without losing any info.

precisely.
Monkey's Audio (another lossless format) shows the same fluctuating bitrate during playback.