Hehe, easy mistake to make. Typically a FLAC is about 1/2 the size of the WAV whereas (depending on your MP3 encoding settings) you'll get around 1/6 of the size for MP3. Your numbers sound good. One of the strange things about FLAC is that increasing the compression factor (the -6 in your flac command line [can be set from -1 to -9]) does very little in terms of decreasing the size of the flac but does greatly increase the time needed to encode the file. So -5 or -6 is probably the most ideal setting.
In blind listening tests that I've seen, people have a very difficult time differentiating between a lossless format like FLAC and a properly encoded (ie using LAME with the presets) MP3. It probably depends on how golden your ears are. With MP3, its all about how well encoded the files are. The nice thing about FLAC is that you won't ever have to worry about re-ripping your CDs again because you know you have a perfect copy. Whereas lossy technology will continue to improve over time and you'll always have that nagging feeling that you might be missing out on some sound quality. If you have the space, my vote is for FLAC... but then I don't have to spend all the time re-ripping your CDs. :) ss. -- street_samurai _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
