How do you play FLAC 24/96 on standard CD players

it depends

you would have to Dither. and convert to WAV. Depending on the program it may sound like Sh!t.

i don't think itunes can convert from flac to wav. not sure. flac seems like a waste of time to me.

In the end. if you want to play the file it has to be 16 44.1 wav. how you get there can affect the overall quality of the file. In a perfect world you are better off downloading the 16 44.1 file to listen to how it is supposed to be and not converting a high res file to a standard file.

quote:

Originally posted by patevil:
flac seems like a waste of time to me.

You may feel this way, but it will be the way of the future especially for downloads.

If you want, although im not sure why you would want to, convert it to a WAV after downloading it.

Oh right.... now Flac support on macs. good luck Mac users.

quote:

Originally posted by Consciousmess:


If I purchase and download a 24bit 96KHz FLAC album, how do I convert that to a high quality CD version?

Convert to WAV. Properly Burn to DVD-R. Play on your DVD player.

Easy as pie.

Otherwise, as patevil states, you will have to convert to WAV then dither it down to red book spec (16/44). Then burn to a CD-R, if it must be a CD.

I have done this many times with my 24/96 vinyl rips for playing in the car. Use Foobar or dbPoweramp to dither it down.

-Patrick

I did this yesterday with a Claire Martin download from Linn Records. dbPoweramp to downconvert, then burnt the CD using Windows Media Player on a slow burn setting to avoid introducing errors.

Sounds pretty good!

Hi Consciousmess,

If you have a normal CD player [i.e. one that just plays CD's but not SACD or DVD-audio] then the files you have will not play [if you could put them on a CD] .... they will have the wrong frequency and the CD player will not recognise them.

Your option then is to convert the download to CD standard [16-bit/44.1khz] and write it to a CD.

This is sample rate conversion and its a minefield [search for 'secret rabbit code' on google to get an idea of the problems].

So ideally you need a program and foobar is free so it's probably the best place to start.

Alternativly [as suggested] you could write it to a DVD and play it in your DVD player [I have no idea how to do this] but your DVD player audio output is probably a lot worse than your CD player audio output.

James H.

P.S. I have never tried any of these programs !!

ends==

Can I quickly ask, if the Flac file is a normal CD rip then converting it back to CD (WAV files) should result in minimal or no loss right?

Thanks for your help

Waz

FLAC is free lossless audio codec and converting between FLAC and WAV does not lost any data.

But sample rate conversion is a different matter -- going from say 44.1 --> 96 --> 44.1 will produce changes to the signal [but I've no idea how much].

secret rabbit code is an example of a samplr rate converter and it gives some information on the different approaches possible -- it is quite a complicated business.

James H.

If you are running mac it might be worth checking out this free software - http://sbooth.org/Max/ I don't think there us a PC download for it, although having said that you could probably find a PC alternative. It converts Flac files into a number of formats - one being the apple lossless codec so you can play it in itunes. If you could get an output of you computer into your Hifi then you would not need to burn cds and getting into the realms on changing sample and bit rates which I'm sure will degrade the quality somewhat. I have downloaded a few tracks from the Linn record store, with sample rates of 88KHz and bits rates over 2500 kbps - they sound stunning even through and airport express (mini jack to phono!!). Tomorrow I am going to try and run an optical out into my supernait from the airport express and see how that sounds with the flac files converted to apple lossless files in itunes.

Hi,

Thanks for your comments. I did see dvPoweramp as a downloadable program, and now that I've seen some endorsement:

quote:

dbPoweramp

I think I'll use this. It is quite mind-blowing for me though as I don't know what goes on when you convert something drom 44.1-96 as I cannot figure what the computer puts in.

I have seen some tracks in FLAC format that I'd like to download at 24bit 96KHz, but ultimately will have to convert them for my CDS3 to play in 16bit 44.1KHz.

Thanks for your tips.

Jon

I've been using dbPoweramp for a couple of years and it works for me.

Before you download double check which version/level you need. I have the 'reference' version of the Music Converter. I'm not sure if all the versions support sample rate and bit depth conversion.