Playback using FLAC

[SonicSound]

Has anyone experienced any audible degraded in sound quality when play files in FLAC vs. WAV?

Does the CPU create noise/strain when the conversion of the FLAC player is processing?

I plan to do some comps soon once I get my new DAC.

[Brian Skalinder]

Has anyone experienced any audible degraded in sound quality when play files in FLAC vs. WAV?

Nope.

Does the CPU create noise/strain when the conversion of the FLAC player is processing?

Noise -- not in my experience.  Not sure how it would / could.  ??  Strain -- not sure what you mean.  Certainly uses some CPU cycles, but I've noticed no performance issues.

FWIW, my playback:

PC / SqeezeCenter / FLAC > wi-fi > Sqeezebox > digital out > Sony STR-DA3000ES > Von Schweikert VR-2s
PC / Foobar2000 > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 > digital out > Mytek Stereo96 DAC > AKG K501 headphones

[SonicSound]

Brian thank's for your input+

Anyone else?

[F.O.Bean]

flawless. Ive been using FLAC on my pc for playback for YEARS, and havent had any problems, and im on an older pc

[JasonSobel]

Certainly uses some CPU cycles, but I've noticed no performance issues.

exactly.  The amount of processing power required to decode the FLAC back to LPCM before outputing the signal is quite minimal.  With nothing else going, I'm sure even a real old P3 computer could handle it.  Which means that with modern processors, it's essentially not an issue at all.

[MattD]

exactly.  The amount of processing power required to decode the FLAC back to LPCM before outputing the signal is quite minimal.  With nothing else going, I'm sure even a real old P3 computer could handle it.  Which means that with modern processors, it's essentially not an issue at all.

I'm currently using a PIII 600 with 128MB RAM running Windows 2000 and foobar to play back my FLACs. I've never had a hiccup. Currently I'm using about 15-20% of my CPU to play back 16/44.1. 24/96 tops out at about 25-30%.

[SonicSound]

What about Media Monkey FLAC?

Any feed back especially at 24bit 96 --> 192

[boojum]

I run foobar2000 > Extigy > hafler XL-280 > Paradigm MiniMonitor v.4.  No problems.

To step back and take a rational look at this, if there were playback problems with FLAC not many folks would be using it.   

[SonicSound]

By the way my ears are not hearing the difference with my current playback source...

However please keep the options coming.

Identifying your playback sources is very helpful

+Thanks

[Nick's Picks]

same, no issues w/flac playback.
and I do A/B between wireless > sb3 (playing FLAC) >DAC straight up redbook trough my Oppo > DAC

[Javier Cinakowski]

no playback problems here, but only use 16bit flac...

[boojum]

FLAC is a lossless format.  If you compress with FLAC and then decompress the filer with FLAC it is bit for bit excatly the same as the original WAV it was made from.  So, what could be different??

When I play FLAC through foobar I get a 1% or 2% usage of total CPU power.  Check over at HydrogenAudio (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php) for a lot of info in their FLAC forum.  The author, Josh Coalson, is active over there, too.

Cheers