Is There Anything Better Than FLAC?
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Musicians, producers, audio engineers – heck, even podcast hosts – all share the struggle when deciding which format to record, store, and upload their audio files in. While each is used for a certain purpose, some are objectively better sounding than others. Where does that put the FLAC format, which is rather elusive to most people who don’t have experience using different formats?
FLAC is the best audio format for audiophiles with high-quality headphones, digital music collectors, artists/producers with many demos or songs to store, and people with similar intentions. Compared to alternatives, FLAC has superior sound quality, takes up less storage, and is cross-compatible.
If you want to find out if FLAC is the right audio format, you’ll certainly get your straight answer below. Tune in your favorite song (perhaps in a couple of different formats), put on those headphones, and let’s get to it.
Is There Anything Better Than FLAC?
First, we need to understand what FLAC is and why it is considered by many to be the best. FLAC is an abbreviation of “Free Lossless Audio Codec,” meaning that it can recode and reduce the size of audio files without affecting the quality – hence it is called “lossless.”
Why would we want to use a lossless format? Well, it is quite difficult for musicians to store all their sound files, and hard disk space is quite expensive – with modern high-speed SSDs being even more so! Therefore, the importance of lossless audio formats lies in the fact that it takes up less space by eliminating or reducing the size of silences while preserving the real sounds and keeping them crisp.
Therefore, comparing FLAC to its other lossless alternatives is most appropriate before deciding which is the best. These are WAV, ALAC, and WMA. Each has its perks, and we’ll get into that later; for now, most people would agree that FLAC is much better than lossy formats and worth investing your time and storage in.
The Benefits Of Using FLAC
FLAC bears the benefit of having the same quality as you would find on a CD but with taking less space. It is good for archiving, exporting, and streaming purposes, and therefore you will find that much downloadable music comes in FLAC format. Furthermore, this is a popular option to export from your preferred DAW.
FLAC’s benefits can be summarized into the following:
- Smaller size: Storage and download/upload speed are why you would need FLAC in the first place.
- Lossless sound quality: Your music will sound as clear as the original recording despite the reduced size.
- Easier data transfer: Because of the reduced size, you can avoid some e-mail/SNS attachment limits and even make streaming faster on streaming services or your website.
- Free: It’s in the name, after all.
- Compatibility: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, some cars and MP3 players, and other devices may all be compatible with FLAC. It’s better to look at whether your device is compatible with FLAC than the other way around because these days, FLAC is available almost anywhere.
The benefits of FLAC seem amazing. Why wouldn’t we want to use it all of the time?
- It depends on your intention: FLAC is suitable for every use, but it is especially effective for archiving.
- Bluetooth doesn’t support FLAC: Bluetooth has a limited bandwidth and often compresses even lossy formats. Bluetooth has lower audio quality in return for more convenience.
- FLAC depends on headphone quality: Similar to the issue with Bluetooth, your FLAC files need good headphones to be fully appreciated.
- FLAC quality is limited to the source: If your file were recorded in a lossy format like MP3, FLAC would sound equally as good with a smaller file size.
What About The Alternatives To FLAC?
FLAC has a variety of lossless alternatives, and even more file types with lossy compression are available. While FLAC may be the best file format for audiophiles, archivers, and high-quality streaming platforms, it is no silver bullet. It would help if you considered opting for other file types depending on your intention with the audio file. Here are some alternatives.
1. WAV
WAV (Waveform Audio Files) is a viable alternative to FLAC. It is also completely lossless and presents the same sound quality as FLAC (if not better, depending on the converter you are using). However, with WAV, the high sound quality comes at a cost, as it is completely raw and uncompressed. Therefore, your files will take up a lot more space than FLAC, which is compressed.
2. ALAC
ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) is the most similar alternative to FLAC because it is lossless and compressed. Yet, it suffers from one great drawback: Since Apple developed it, it has only been restricted to use by Apple products. For those who can’t afford or don’t prefer Apple products, it is a completely unviable option, and the same goes for people who want others to have access to their audio.
3. WMA
Windows Media Audio, or WMA, is much smaller than other audio formats and is extremely compressed. The drawback is the major amount of audio loss that this file format suffers from. For people wanting to store massive amounts of demos for reference purposes only, .wma is a good option.
Besides cheap storage (and hence easier mail transfer), WMA cannot be seen as a good alternative to FLAC since we want something lossless and accessible. WMA fails in both categories as it is only available to Microsoft/Windows operating systems.
4. MP3
MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3) is similar to WMA in that it is lossy and lacks the high quality of FLAC. Its main advantage is that nearly any device can decode MP3 files – from your home system to your car, handheld MP3 player, and smartphone. While it has a smaller file size than FLAC, it has much lower audio quality. MP3 is recommended for listening via Bluetooth devices.
The Future Of FLAC
FLAC is still relatively new, as development only started at the turn of the millennium. As development progressed, it became available to all operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, BlackBerry OS, and iOS. Though, the future holds even more prospects for FLAC.
More and more music makers are switching to FLAC for the increased demand for high-resolution audio. Lo-Fi music was (and still is) cool, but most people want to enjoy audio to its maximum potential. High-quality headphones, microphones, and other input/output devices are adding to the necessity for a format like FLAC.
The second reason is the decreasing price of storage. While digital storage is still expensive, as the powers of supply and demand do their magic, it is slowly becoming more accessible. A terabyte of data storage is becoming exponentially cheaper every 5 years, and cloud storage is also a cheap alternative.
High-quality streaming services like Tidal and Amazon Music HD already implement FLAC in their lossless audio marketing strategy. Likely, other music streaming services will soon follow suit. Services like these always need to stay ahead of their competitors, and sound quality is one of the main ways they can achieve this. While some may adopt FLAC, others may develop new formats.
Conclusion
Converting your most important or favorite files into FLAC format may be worthwhile. If you’re starting from WAV, there’s nothing to lose, but working from MP3 may not be worth your time. FLAC is a good format to save finished projects from your DAW or take along on park walks with your favorite high-quality headphones.
