Am I going creazy ?

[Giorgio]

Lossless is lossless, so Flac or Cd audio quality are the same.
Well yesterday I compare the same song listened from the cd inside the notebook I have and than the same song ripped in Flac (with Db power converter) and I heard I very very perceptible difference.

The song is "Stand by my me" of Ben E. King and there is a bell that rings for all this songs, the difference consist that this bell sound more like a bell on the cd than on the Flac file. Is difficult to explain but trust me is very very little difference that if you don't compare the two song you will not hear and probably also the majority of the people will not find.

I'll probably rip this song again from cd to wave to see if I have the same difference.

Could this difference due to the laser that read the cd or there is any other explaination ?

Best regards

[dizwell]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

Either the information is in the file or it isn't. Your choice of laser doesn't (cannot, mathematically) make the slightest bit of difference.

Of course, if you listened to the CD using an expensive 24-bit oversampling Lord knows what other signal processing magic rig; and if you listened to the FLAC file with your humble PC outputting an audio signal via a Creative card to the same speakers... well, the signal processing paths are going to be so different, a comparison is meaningless.

The difference might be in what is done to the signal, not the information content of the signal, in other words.

[Spoon]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

If you have AccurateRip switched on then if it says the cd was ripped without error, then it is 100% exact.

[Giorgio]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

I listened the same tracks in the same way with the same headphones.
This is why I cannot find a reason.

[Wayne]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

What (software) player did you use?

[Giorgio]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

I used "Play audio cd" to listen the cd and "Dbpower Player" to listen the Flac file. The Flac file is ripped without "Accurate Rip" cause I don't have the connection at home.

[Rollo]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

Try comparing the flac to a WAV file, using the same player. Remove all variables before drawing any conclusions.

[bhoar]

Re: Quality: am I going crazy ?

Remember than any of your playback rigs (laptop, desktop, stereo, portable CD) may be introducing DSP effects of their own. Laptop sound drivers are often set to automatically apply some sort of stereo expansion by default, to make up for the crummy or badly placed speakers.

Typically, the setting can be removed somewhere in the control panels...

Even if you play the CD on a the same laptop, it might be playing back in analog mode, bypassing the effects. So, you have some investigation of your playback chain in store.

-brendan

[Giorgio]

Re: Am I going creazy ?

Yes Yes Yes !!

This was the problem !

Thank you to everybody :D :D :D


Remember than any of your playback rigs (laptop, desktop, stereo, portable CD) may be introducing DSP effects of their own. Laptop sound drivers are often set to automatically apply some sort of stereo expansion by default, to make up for the crummy or badly placed speakers.

Typically, the setting can be removed somewhere in the control panels...

Even if you play the CD on a the same laptop, it might be playing back in analog mode, bypassing the effects. So, you have some investigation of your playback chain in store.

-brendan