Audio Fidelity – What Can You Hear?

When choosing what file type is right for you and your music collection, you’re playing a balancing act between fidelity, and file size.

Digital audio fidelity can be a complicated, technical topic. There are a few processes, and they all work differently and have different results. These results are hotly debated among audiophiles, who make strong claims of what one can and can’t tell the difference between, and which is better. As usual, we’re not going to weigh in on any debates, but rather provide a simplified breakdown of how some of these processes and file types work, and leave the rest up to you to decide.

Uncompressed Audio

Let’s start with a WAV file. This is the original digital audio file developed by IBM and Microsoft. A WAV file is typically totally uncompressed audio. This is what one would find on a CD. It is achieved by converting the analogue audio from instruments or a microphone to digital bits by way of something called sampling. This is considered the highest quality digital audio format.

A side effect of this uncompressed transition from analogue to digital is very large audio files, which are cumbersome to deal with and stream online. For this reason, methods of compressing audio were developed that would, in theory produce the same listening experience, but with a smaller file size.

Lossy Compression

The most commonly used form of audio file compression has been referred to as “lossy” compression, meaning some audio information is trimmed out. The elements targeted here are usually those beyond the scope of human hearing. The other factor is something called bit rate. Compression uses a lower bit rate, which means there are fewer audio bits used to make up the audio file. (Think of this like a movie or video at different frame rates.)

The most common form of lossy compression is MP3. However, not all MP3’s are made equal. Some are more aggressively compressed, and use a lower bit rate. Higher quality MP3’s run at 320Kbps per second. While this is a lot lower than WAV (around 1411Kbps), it is still generally considered to be of a high quality. To achieve very small files, sometimes 128Kbps MP3’s can be found. This is certainly not “bad” quality, but someone with a keen ear, or some good headphones could certainly pick out the difference.

Lossless Compression

Lossless compression is a newer, more efficient form of compression, which allows smaller file sizes, without removing any audio data. Lossless compression focusses its attention on redundant data, and mathematically simplifying the string of audio bits. The algorithm predicts what audio data is required next, meaning only the difference between the actual data, and the predicted data need be stored. This is what allows the dramatic reduction in file size. The most common form of lossless compression is FLAC.

So... Which one is for me?

Obviously something like FLAC, theoretically at least, sounds like a no-brainer. But there are two major things to take into consideration when choosing your file type of preference.

Your headphones/speakers – Lossless or uncompressed audio won’t have an impact when listening on phone speakers or something similar. High quality headphones or speakers are arguably the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to a premium audio experience.

What can you hear? – This is where the question culminates. What feels right to you? Do you feel your music just sound better on FLAC or on WAV? Then that’s the choice for you! Can’t seem to hear the difference between any of them? Then stick to the option best for your storage!

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