Converting from uncompressed to compressed vs. CD to compressed

[hknutsen]

Will converting uncompressed FLAC to compressed FLAC be different from ripping straight to compressed FLAC?

My situation is that I have a lot of albums I ripped from CDs I own a long time ago, but back then I did not know that the compression options for FLAC didn't affect audio quality, so I went with uncompressed. However, as my library of FLAC has built up over the years, I figured I should compress it. Since FLAC is lossless, can I convert my old uncompressed FLACs to compressed (level 8 option) without any loss in quality? It's pretty much like ripping from a CD, right?

The reason I'm asking this is because it would be much quicker to just queue and convert my old FLAC files instead of ripping all my CDs all over again.

[garym]

Re: Converting from uncompressed to compressed vs. CD to compressed

Will converting uncompressed FLAC to compressed FLAC be different from ripping straight to compressed FLAC?

My situation is that I have a lot of albums I ripped from CDs I own a long time ago, but back then I did not know that the compression options for FLAC didn't affect audio quality, so I went with uncompressed. However, as my library of FLAC has built up over the years, I figured I should compress it. Since FLAC is lossless, can I convert my old uncompressed FLACs to compressed (level 8 option) without any loss in quality? It's pretty much like ripping from a CD, right?

The reason I'm asking this is because it would be much quicker to just queue and convert my old FLAC files instead of ripping all my CDs all over again.

No difference whatsoever. The end result will be bit perfect FLAC files. It would be a major waste of time with no benefit to re-rip the CDs. FLAC files are lossless no matter what level of compression is used in creating them (uncompressed, 1,2,3....8, etc.)

[hknutsen]

Re: Converting from uncompressed to compressed vs. CD to compressed

No difference whatsoever. The end result will be bit perfect FLAC files. It would be a major waste of time with no benefit to re-rip the CDs. FLAC files are lossless no matter what level of compression is used in creating them (uncompressed, 1,2,3....8, etc.)

That's what I wanted to hear. It'll save me a lot of time.

Thanks!

[schmidj]

Re: Converting from uncompressed to compressed vs. CD to compressed

One further comment, the only reason for compressing the uncompressed FLAC files would be if you are short of disc space, and with giant hard drives so cheap, that is rarely an issue now. But to repeat the gist of Garym's reply, there is nothing different about compressed FLAC files except that they are "compressed" like zip files for audio, so take up less disc space. The end result to your playback system is a bit-perfect copy of the original.

If disc space isn't an issue, why bother doing anything? there is nothing wrong with having a library of mixed FLAC compression labels.