Taking Some FLAC

I recently mentioned that online music downloading is still primitive and in its infancy. The main reason I gave for this was that MP3 is a "lossy" format that downgrades the sound quality to make the music file a more manageable size.

The interesting news is that some websites are offering the download of non-lossy music files. One of the more impressive sites I have found is eClassical. Audiophiles will also point to the Linn website, but the performances on offer are limited. The Linn website even offers downloads in full archival format.

The Linn website gives us a glimpse into the future of how we will be listening to music. For example, take this recording by Linn of orchestra highlights from the Ring cycle.  If you are anything like me you probably had never heard of this orchestra or conductor before, and this sort of thing is typical of audiophile recordings. Samples suggest that they are not bad at all. However, take a look at the full studio master format download in the high resolution FLAC format. Notice that it is in a 24bit 192kHz format. Notice too how much space it takes up - a full 3.18 GB of memory. It is unsurprising that they also give you the option of downloading in more truncated formats. Yet even their MP3 option is set to the maximal resolution of the format.

In the not so distant future, this is how we will listen to music. We will no longer have stacks and stacks of CDs taking up shelf space in our music libraries. We will no longer have a CD/SACD player that reads off a disc with a laser. Instead we will download and store everything digitally onto internet connected hard drives feeding a signal to a digital-analog converter (DAC).

The trouble is that many of us now own a thousand or more CDs. If we downloaded this amount of music in studio master format it will take up countless thousands of gigabytes of disc space. It will also take forever to download all this. Fortunately download speeds are getting faster. Hard drives are getting bigger and bigger. Unfortunately, it will take quite a few years before this sort of thing becomes mainstream. At the moment the Apple iTunes audio software can't even play FLAC files. Yes, even a supposedly technologically bleeding edge firm like Apple are badly lagging behind.

In the meantime, we are in limbo. Record stores are shutting down one by one, because people are  downloading music directly off the internet. Until downloads in high resolution formats become widespread, in many cases we may have to put up with rather scrawny sounding MP3 recordings of many recordings.

Nor do I suggest you rush in and spend a lot of money on the high-fi equipment being made to cater for this evolving market. Formats go out of date overnight, and you can easily end up wasting money on a the latest white elephant. It doesn't pay to be an early adaptor. Don't waste a lot of money on an experimental format. You should wait until the wider market decides as to what will be the future standard. Unfortunately, this sort of thing can take many years to sort out. If you wish to read more about this field I suggest reading the Computer Audiophile Forum dedicated to the subject.

Again, the big "so what" leveller is the music. I downloaded an NBC Symphony Toscanini recording of some Wagner orchestra excerpts in a 16 bit FLAC file from the eClassical website. I suspect that these live recordings were made at studio H8 within the New York NBC studio complex. Despite "only" being a 16 bit recording, I was rather taken back by the stupendous sound! It is the sort of high end mono that puts so-called "stereo" MP3 files to utter shame. I have never heard Toscanini sound so vivid, so utterly alive and so overwhelmingly convincing. Yes, it is close miked (to avoid capturing audience sounds) but the immediacy, clarity and smoothness of the front row sound, which when combined with Toscanini's brio, makes the hair on the nape of my neck stand up. I recommend this recording highly.

Toscanini plays Wagner 

Wait! I thought I hated Toscanini. So much for that one...

I also managed to download a 16 bit FLAC file of a Simone Young Hamburg Philharmonic Siegfried. The sound once again is absolutely amazing. I am also enjoying the performance, but, until I have understaken a careful study of the performance with the score, I will remain silent about what I think of her interpretation.