I’m rebuilding my entire music library by hand using WAV files. I may regret that later, but the difference in sound is worth the effort. And it’s an exercise in curiosity as much as anything else. If this tanks, I’ll go back to using AIF files.
@mcg I’m building my library because there have been too many times when using a streaming service that a track or album has been pulled from circulation. I’m using WAV this time more out of curiosity than anything else. AIF is equivalent to WAV but with a wrapper that can store data (tags, artwork, etc.). Some people more knowledgeable than I am report that a device’s having to unwrap the file to present it reduces the quality of the sound. I think I can tell a difference between AIF and WAV, but that is almost certainly psychological.
FLAC presents a bit of a conundrum for me. Technically, it’s lossless. But it’s also compressed. As a music professional, lossless and compressed in the same format doesn’t make sense to me. If it’s compressed, there’s some loss. Noticeable? I’m more confident that I can hear a difference between FLAC and WAV.
Since WAV files can’t store metadata, I have to rely on Apple Music to store it for me. So if/when the time comes that I lose this library or it becomes corrupt, I’ll use AIF because I won’t want to spend hours rebuilding all the data of the WAV files. For now, though, it’s a semi-fun nerdy project.
Sorry for the much longer answer than you asked for.
@gpittman I traded away my entire CD collection some years ago, and although I can find most of the music that I want to hear, I somewhat regret doing it, (before ripping raw wave audio). I’m not very demanding when it comes to audio quality, (growing up with cassette tapes), but I can certainly appreciate good quality audio. Also, like you say, not all music is available in streaming.
@gpittman I’m probably out of my league, but regarding the availability of music via streaming, I recommend for classical music a fairly new service, Primephonic, which has surprised me with its depth, including this album on which I was a singer.
@gpittman I am glad for the long answer. Interesting to understand the “why” for things. Anyhow, you can think about FLAC, and other lossless compression formats, like a zip compressed file. A zip is lossless and compressed. When you unzip it has to be exactly as it was before being zipped or the contents would no longer function/execute/whatever. Have you done blind comparisons between the formats? Could be differences between the audio libraries/apps that handle the formats I guess.
@ReaderJohn Would you replace Spotify with Primephonic? Have you? I'm not gonna pay for both. It looks very attractive.
@mcg You make an excellent point about zip files and FLAC files. I hadn't thought of that. The research I've done indicates that the processor/player has to unwrap AIF and FLAC files and somehow, in a way that gets far more technical than my current knowledge allows, that unwrapping degrades the sound quality. I have done blind tests using wired headphones on my iPhone and Mac (both new, so both are capable of playing hi-res audio files) between FLAC and WAV and AIF and WAV. Every time, I was able to correctly choose between FLAC and WAV. I was about 50/50 when guessing between AIF and FLAC files in my blind tests but when I know which file I'm listening to, I think I can hear a difference. Objectively, that's nonsense; it's in my head. But AIF is an Apple-created format, so unwrapping that file natively and seemlessly is built in to their devices. I've read that using AIF files on non-Apple devices introduces the same unwrapping issues FLAC files have.
I have my music files backed up in both WAV and AIF formats, so I won't have any qualms going back to AIF if I have to. And then I won't have to manually enter artwork and other data. I'll just have to do a few tweaks here and there (I never, ever assign the genre provided by the label).
@ReaderJohn Now that I have this project underway, and essentially my library of files I currently want in hand, I can re-examine my subscription to Tidal. I only need a service to discover new music I want to purchase and Spotify or Apple Music will work fine for that. Without the Tidal subscription, I can explores others like Primephonic. But I have found, surprisingly, I really don't ever choose a specific classical album to listen to. I much prefer tuning to one of the classical stations on Sirius or listening to NPR and having the music chosen for me. I play the "When and by Whom Was it Written?" game, and for bonus points, which movement might it be?
@odd I have no idea where all of my CDs from my teenage years are. I think I lost them in what my wife and I call the "fire sale," the phrase we both use to refer to our earlier respective divorces.
I was surprised when several of my favorite albums and tracks disappeared from streaming services recently. I had the files for them backed up, but for simplicity, I always listened to them using a streaming service. That's why I undertook this project. I wanted to build out all of the remaining albums I wanted but had not purchased yet.
@gpittman I’m not going to get anymore CDs, so I’m hoping that bandwidth will be a non-issue, and that all the streaming companies eventually will get lossless audio, as well as bid for more music, rather than have exclusive deals.
@odd I don't think bandwidth will be a problem. Tidal and Qobuz are really great lossless streaming services. With Plex, you can mix your own files with streamed files from Tidal, so that's a very nice feature. Their mobile apps are pretty bad, though. You can down load an album and then a playlist with that album and the app has to download the album twice, doubling the amount of storage it takes up on your device. It doesn't download the album once and render it everywhere it's needed; it downloads it for everywhere it's needed. I can't determine why they designed it like that, but it was a deliberate design decision that the devs aren't interested in discussing. You can stream the files, but since you're running Plex on your own "server," you're limited to your home network's upload speeds.
I'm still shocked that Apple hasn't entered the lossles arena.
@JMaxB I’ve never used Spotify. Maybe I missed a bet in not looking into it.
I have Pandora (long subscriber, many personal stations) and added Primephonic, oh, maybe a year ago. My listening is generally background, so I dropped from the higher-fidelity stream to the lower so as not to feel profligate.
@gpittman I never thought Sirius classical stations were all that good, and I've dropped it in my vehicle. I've gotten pretty good at Piano Puzzlers with Bruce Adolph on Performance Today on NPR. Not familiar with Tidal or Spotify. I'm starting to see a pattern of ignorance in me.
@ReaderJohn When I've looked for a classical piece on Spotify I've always found it, though if I wanted by a particular artist I might be out of luck. I think I'll stick with it, since it humors my forays into old-time, jazz etc.
@JMaxB I looked at it on the web today, and if it covers classical as well as jazz and a modest amount of pop, it could be a very good value.