FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec and is an open-source file format which offers CD quality audio sound at half the size. It is an increasingly popular music format for audiophiles that’s compatible with many PCs, phones, AV receivers, blu-ray players, streaming devices like Roku or Fire TV and even cars like Ford’s SYNC infotainment system. Because the codec is lossless, there is no loss in audio quality.
MP3, which is a lossy MPEG-1 or 2 Audio Layer III format, is still the most popular music and audio listening codec that pretty much compatible with every device on the planet. The benefit of MP3s is file size. Depending on the bitrate used in the compression process, the same song in MP3 file format can be 6 times smaller than a FLAC file. Because it’s compressed, you lose audio information and certain information are thrown away during the coding process and lost forever.
With a FLAC file, you can recode it into any other audio format without worrying about losing information. However with a lossy format like MP3, each time you convert it into another audio format, you’ll continue to lose audio information.
Does FLAC sound better than 320 kbps MP3s?
So then the question of which one is better and can you really hear the difference between FLAC and MP3 (encoded at a high quality bitrate of 320 kbps)? Well, it depends. So while technically FLAC files have more bits meaning more information stored, they are better than any MP3 format file, there are other factors that determine if they are truly better in real life listening situations.
Can you tell the difference between MP3 320kbps and lossless audio test?
For those who doesn’t care too much about music sound quality or can’t tell the difference, then it won’t matter. Take this audio test to determine if you can tell the difference between different bitrates. If you are also satisfied with radio quality music or listening with average headphones or bluetooth and smart speakers, then it won’t matter much to you if the audio is in FLAC or MP3 format.
Do you have hi-fi sound system or headphones?
If you don’t have the audio equipment and speakers to take advantage of full audio information like CDs and FLAC files, then it probably doesn’t matter as well. If you are listening on bluetooth speakers or in your car with stock speakers, then MP3 320 will sound more than fine. But for those who have awesome home theater or audio sound systems and really good ears, then you should be able to hear the difference, but only on audio recordings that are more sophisticated than the standard pop and rock variety. Music encoded with FLAC provide wider soundstage and sounds fuller, much like a CD would. Instruments are clear from vocals. Give it a try with a pair of hifi headphones and you might be surprised.
Lastly, always use FLAC files as your music backup regardless of which format you use to listen to music. This way, you can always convert the uncompressed file into a smaller size compressed version like MP3. You’ll never want to convert a MP3 into another format and re-encode at a smaller bitrate because MP3s already doesn’t have all the information from the original source. When you encode a compressed file, you’ll lose even more information.
