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Level 2

417 points

Best way to play (or convert??) FLAC files

I have a collection of 24-bit FLAC files.

Am I best to try and convert them to play in iTunes as Apple Lossless? Would I lose some quality?

to use a standalone player? If so, which is the more robust and likely to give the best quality - also using AirFoil:

Songbird
Play
VLC
…something else?

It's maintaining the quality of the original that's most important to me. Neither the features of an eventual player; nor whether it's free or not :-)

Thanks!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Clean machine... no haxies; no Microsoft etc

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 7:57 PM

Best reply

Limnos

Level 10

411,253 points

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 8:10 PM

Any lossless codec should be equivalent to the other in terms of quality. That's the whole point -- there is no loss so no change in quality.

If you want to use iTunes I think the best solution long term is to go with ALE. There's supposed to be some plugins to enable FLAC on iTunes but I haven't seen absolutely glowing reports.

[Xiph QuickTime Components (XiphQT)|http://xiph.org/quicktime/]

[How to play .flac files in iTunes for Mac|http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/09/20/how-to-play-flac-files-in-itunes/] - link broken

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/08/use-fluke-to-add-flac-files-to-your-it unes-library.ars] - link to Fluke in article broken.

http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/12/how-to-play-flac-files-in-itunes/

Play .wma, Ogg, and FLAC files in iTunes. - [http://www.macworld.com/article/142096/2009/08/play_wmaoggflac_itunes.html]

The links above for Fluke are broken but you can still find it at: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Fluke.shtml

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31 replies

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

417 points

Feb 22, 2012 7:01 PM in response to kanyfilm

Kanyfilm,

Yes, I like the idea of centralising everything in iTunes too.

Do you have a source for AE definitely downsampling, please?

I see no other practical way (my stereo is about 40' of cable from my iMac) - except Sonos.

Streaming not something I want to do. Just get the best quality I can from the 24-bit FLAC files I have.

Thanks!

kanyfilm

Level 1

5 points

Feb 22, 2012 7:06 PM in response to Mark Sealey

not definitive just "some guy" on one of these boards but i've been reading this a lot the last few nights.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2630381?start=0&tstart=0

sounds pretty legit

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

417 points

Feb 22, 2012 8:11 PM in response to kanyfilm

kanyfilm,

Thanks; that looks well-informed in parts, doesn't it?

OTOH it's over a year out of date and I have heard to the contrary.

But then I want to believe AE doesn't degrade the signal - effectively :-)

Perhaps it's just AirPlay that needs to downsample?

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

417 points

Feb 23, 2012 11:50 AM in response to Mark Sealey

Spent some time looking for a definitive answer on AE. And asked a technical expert contact I have.

Still as confusing as ever with these contradictory answers:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Macbook-Pro

http://www.avforums.com/forums/14674792-post9.html

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

417 points

Feb 24, 2012 6:17 PM in response to Mark Sealey

Just heard from RogueAmoeba definitively that Airfoil transmits audio to your remote devices based on the AirPlay audio protocol, which specifies a 16-bit stereo Apple Lossless stream at 44.1 kHz.

Which answers that.

Asu777

Level 1

9 points

Jun 6, 2012 2:52 PM in response to Limnos

You can lose quality, it depends on the converter. I used Toast, and the bit rate was all standardized to 750. I then used XLD and got bit rate over 1000.

Oct 18, 2012 1:18 AM in response to Limnos

http://code.google.com/p/flukeformac/ seems to be here. Not in active dev though.

RBCGL

Level 1

5 points

Oct 18, 2012 4:31 AM in response to Mark Sealey

Does Fluke downsample?

Do you guys think that this is the best / most-efficient way to go that was offered so far?

Oct 18, 2012 7:18 AM in response to RBCGL

Fluke is not woring on Lion. I mean it didn't work for me at least.

Nov 23, 2012 8:56 PM in response to RandomAppleID

Going to bump this in case it helps someone new... Airport Express downsamples IF you connect it to your amp via analog cable (thus using its internal DAC). If you use optical (mini toslink) it preserves quality and feeds your amp whatever you stream.

Sep 16, 2013 8:37 PM in response to ChrisVandergaag

Another way is to convert FLAC to iPhone supported format. iDealshare VideoGo is just the professional FLAC to iPhone Converter which can fast and batch convert FLAC files to iPhone supported format. It can either convert FLAC to iPhone supported lossless audio format like Apple Lossless ALAC M4A, AIFF, WAV; or convert FLAC to iPhone supported lossy audio format like AAC or MP3.

Sep 16, 2013 8:37 PM in response to Mark Sealey

Recommend a Converter to convert your flac file to itunes compatible formats and will not loss the quaility.

This Converter also can convert flac files to iPod/iPad/iPhone compatible formats.

realbill

Level 1

8 points

Jan 31, 2014 6:33 AM in response to gerardglove

I get great sound from Pure Music which uses iTunes to manage the files but does its own audio.

http://www.channld.com/puremusic/

jminn

Level 1

4 points

Feb 3, 2014 1:48 PM in response to realbill

For $129, Pure Music better be great.

Sep 4, 2014 12:22 AM in response to Mark Sealey

This free online video converter can convert flac files. Seems that it supports to run on both windows and mac.

Best way to play (or convert??) FLAC files