Originally Posted by
garym
Not really sure how this came about. I think it is something from the old days. It's all about size and how hard it is to encode. So in olden times, harddisk space was super expensive, so making lots of files smaller, saved that space. Also, it had to do with the power of the CPU of computer when creating (encoding) the FLAC files. the computer had to work harder to encode at "8" vs. say, "2". But of course now, even the cheapest CPU made in the last 10 years can effortlessly encode to "8". Do keep in mind that some people are confused. They think the decoder (the player) has to work harder to decode a FLAC encoded at 8 vs 1, but this is not true. There may be an ever so slight difference, but not enough to matter. It's in the encoding of the file (creation) that the CPU has to work a bit harder to encode at 8 vs a lower level.
But again, they are all lossless, and decode to the exact same bitperfect copy of the CD.