FLAC or ALAC, which one to choose

[alexkorsun]

Hello everyone
This is my first time posting here. As non-technical personnel, I have a question.
I am going to use dBpoweramp CD Ripper to digitalize my music CDs to audio. It is said that FLAC and ALAC with lossless compression provide the best sound effects. But I don’t know which one to choose.
I read some articles on the Internet. This author says the size of FLAC is bigger than ALAC, but their quality is not much different (https://www.cisdem.com/resource/flac-to-alac.html). Is he right? I am considering ripping CDs to ALAC.

[Spoon]

Re: FLAC or ALAC, which one to choose

The quality should be identical, they are both lossless formats.

[mville]

Re: FLAC or ALAC, which one to choose

I read some articles on the Internet. This author says the size of FLAC is bigger than ALAC, but their quality is not much different (https://www.cisdem.com/resource/flac-to-alac.html). Is he right? I am considering ripping CDs to ALAC.

The quality is the same. Personally, I would rip to flac, as it is more widely used.

[alexkorsun]

Re: FLAC or ALAC, which one to choose

Thank you for your suggestion, I will think about it.

[BOOTP]

Re: FLAC or ALAC, which one to choose

I would definitely say go with FLAC.

In terms of quality, it doesn't matter but ALAC does not have a built-in check (CRC) to verify the integrity of the audio - FLAC does.

By using foobar2000 and FLAC, every so often I can check the integrity of my entire library by using Utilities --> Verify integrity in foobar2000. Some people use a 'Test Conversion' in dBpoweramp Batch Converter but foobar2000 is the way I do it, plus you can view the report of checksums.

[garym]

Re: FLAC or ALAC, which one to choose

For me, this is the key reason to use FLAC (and one that many do not seem to understand, until they have file corruption issues and then it is too late).

[camilasaunder89]

I will recommend FLAC as it is more compatible with multiple platforms but on the other hand, its support is limited to 24-bit.

[garym]

I will recommend FLAC as it is more compatible with multiple platforms but on the other hand, its support is limited to 24-bit.

Incorrect. In the last few years they have added 32bit support. Maybe even higher bit rate support recently. In any case, unless you are creating files and editing them in the studio for production, anything higher than 24 bit for playback use is crazy.