flac downloads free Flac downloads free. Let me provide another example of a free and legal FLAC download. Here is a link: http://archive.org/details/cj2009-10-05.ku100_at37. At that link, you will find an entire concert by The Cowboy Junkies. The recording is a binaural recording intended especially for headphone use. It is available in multiple formats on that page, including FLAC. If you want to download the entire concert in FLAC, the easiest way is to use the "Lossless zip" link located on the left side of the page where it says, "Play / Download." I can't say whether you'll like The Cowboy Junkies or not, but it is an excellent live recording intended for headphone users. About audio formats FLAC and MP3. At eClassical, we now offer much of our music in three file types: MP3 320 kbit/s ( near CD quality) 16-bit FLAC (CD quality) 24-bit FLAC (studio quality). You can download free test files of each format further down on this page. You can always contact us with any question at: [email protected]. What is FLAC? New amongst these is the FLAC format. FLAC ("Free Lossless Audio Codec") shrinks audio files to about half their original size without losing any of the information, a so-called lossless compression. 24-bit FLAC s (studio quality) are the highest quality we can offer. They are substantially superior to CD quality, i.e. even closer to the live experience. You will find many recent albums (and many more to come!) in this format. The sample rate of these files varies, depending on the rate that was used for the recording in question. It ranges up to 192 kHz, which may easily cause the file size for one such album to reach a gigabyte, despite the packing capacity of FLAC. So you need a fast internet connection to download such files, but they're worth it. Here is useful guide with more info about 24 bit FLAC the-definitive-guide-to-24-bit-flac. How to use FLAC MP3 has been the most popular format for internet audio for a long time, and MP3 files can be played back by almost any audio soft- or hardware. How does FLAC compare? Listening on a (more or less portable) media player You need a media player that supports FLAC. The FLAC homepage hosts a list of media players and keeps it up to date, better than we could. There may also be firmware updates available for your media player that add FLAC support. Any FLAC-compatible player should be able to play our 16-bit FLACs. If your player doesn't have a 24-bit chip, studio quality FLACs may still play, but reduced to whatever quality the player supports (see its manual). Listening on a computer. For this, you need a playing software that supports FLAC. Neither Windows Media Player nor iTunes currently do this without the need to install additional "plugins", and even with these, they may only play 16-bit FLACs. If you want to try, here are links for Windows and Macintosh. For a full-featured FLAC playback, we would recommend that you choose a media player software that inherently supports FLAC, such as MediaMonkey, Winamp or Foobar2000 for Windows, and VLC or Play for Macintosh. For further alternatives, please look at this more detailed list of software players. As opposed to standalone media players, many computers are not primarily built to play music. Their built-in analogue audio outputs are often quite noisy, and 24-bit support is not very common. Generally speaking, you get a much better sound if you let an external D/A converter or AV receiver do the D/A conversion. Send the audio there by digital means such as optical or coaxial S/PDIF lines or the HDMI standard (for which you need a sound or video card with one of these connectors). For studio quality files, please check that your D/A converter supports the resolution of the files you intend to play. Burning files onto audio CDs. You can easily do this with our 16-bit FLACs , since they're always at audio CD resolution . Some media players can burn CDs straight from the playlist. Standard burning software (such as Nero or Toast) may already have FLAC support or can have it added. And there are a few smaller programs that can burn FLAC compilations too. If you want to have 24-bit audio on a playable disc, you need to burn the 24-bit FLACs onto a DVD . In this case, "DVD" means either DVD- Audio or DVD-Video, and in both cases, a process called "authoring" is required. Standard burning programs for data DVDs can't do this, so you need special software. DVD-Video (the most common DVD format) also supports 24-bit audio, but has some restrictions. The possible sample rates are only two: 48 and 96 kHz. If your 24-bit FLAC file has a different sample rate, you must convert it first. (Please note that the final result will depend on how well the conversion process is done). Moreover, many players apparently discard some of the audio data (footnote), so by using DVD-Video, you may lose some of the original file information. Original Sample Rate What we call "Original sample rate" is the PCM sample rate of the highest bit rate files we receive from the labels. The highest bit rate download we offer will have the same sample rate. We ask the labels to give us the highest meaningful quality in which they have the recording. If they didn't convert rates during the postproduction, this will be the sample rate in which the album was recorded. But we cannot know each label's signal chain for each album. We trust them that they don't deliver upsampled recordings (contact our support if you think you found a "black sheep"). Should they send sample rates lower than the original, they obviously have no other choice (at present). Even there, we can't know whether a higher version maybe exists. We understand that the above may be considered inaccurate for DSD recordings. Of course, there the "original sample rate" was 2.8224 MHz. And some people will definitely want to have the "better" DSD originals, no PCM conversions. But since we decided to only deal with PCM files at eClassical (up to now), we write what you will get when you buy the album. Unless looking up each album manually, we won't even know whether it has been DSD once - or maybe just some tracks of it? That information rests with the labels. Therefore, should it be essential for you to know whether a 88.2 or 96 kHz album originates from a DSD recording, we must ask you to check this with the respective label or read in the enclosed booklet. This is what our term "original" means in detail. We hope you understand that we don't have the possibilities to "legally bindingly" inform you about the production process of every album we sell, since we don't have access to each label's modus operandi for each specific record. Conversion / Decoding Lately, FLAC's popularity has grown rapidly, but software for FLAC audio has not developed at the same pace. If your favourite software doesn't work with FLAC yet, remember that you can always convert FLAC files to another format. The best choice in terms of quality and compatibility is to simply decode FLAC to uncompressed WAV or AIFF. The resulting files may be twice as big and may not support metadata, but they should work universally. Test files. Example 1: Soprano and baroque ensemble H. Purcell: "Sweeter than roses" from this album (1536-1) Carolyn Sampson, Laurence Cummings, Elizabeth Kenny, Anne-Marie Lasla BIS1536-001-mp3_320.mp3 BIS1536-001-flac_16.flac BIS1536-001-flac_24.flac. Example 2: Orchestra C. Debussy: "II. Jeux de vagues" from "La Mer" on this album (1447-2) Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Lan Shui BIS1447-002-mp3_320.mp3 BIS1447-002-flac_16.flac BIS1447-002-flac_24.flac. The 24-bit FLAC file of the second example is in 88.2 kHz, so that you can test how sample rates over 48 kHz work for you. FLAC File - opening and understanding. Did your computer fail to open a FLAC file? We explain what they are used for and recommend software that we know can open or otherwise handle your .FLAC files. What is a FLAC file? A .FLAC file is a FLAC lossless compressed audio file . FLAC is an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Files with the .flac file extension contain audio files that are compressed using lossless audio compression. The compression of a FLAC file is similar to the compression of a ZIP file, making the file more manageable and saving file storage space. The FLAC lossless audio compression format is an open-source format, allowing the use of FLAC files across multiple operating systems and platforms. The FLAC file format is similar to the MP3 file format, but the sound quality of a FLAC file is superior to that of files that have been compressed with the MP3 file format. How to open FLAC files. You will need a program compatible with the specific file you are trying to open, as different programs may use files with file extension FLAC for different purposes. We have identified 7 FLAC openers for Windows that is compatible with this specific type of FLAC file. 10 Freeware To Rip CDs To FLAC Lossless And MP3 Lossy HD Audio Format. The best compression High Definition audio format when ripping your CD to digital format is FLAC, not MP3 or AAC. MP3 is a lossy format, which means parts of the music are shaved off to reduce the file size to a more compact level. MP3 is still the most popular format because back then storage was limited, internet speed was 56K and converting will take hours if the quality is too high. If you have a massive CD collection, you should rip the CD to FLAC, not 128 bit, 168 bit, 196 bit or 256 bit mp3. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for HD audio. MP3 vs. FLAC, can you hear the difference if it is 320 bit MP3 vs FLAC? The average music listener probably won’t be able to hear a huge difference when comparing FLAC to MP3. However, those of you that call yourselves audiophiles would likely consider it sacrilege to listen to anything of lesser quality. The answer depends on your headphone, there will be slight difference if you have a HD headphone, however, you will not notice any difference in sound quality for FLAC if you use a cheap headphone or those earpod by Apple, including Beats Headphones. Without further ado, here are 10 best ways to copy and rip CDs to FLAC format. ↓ 01 – Exact Audio Copy | Windows. Exact Audio Copy is a so-called audio grabber for audio CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives. The main differences between EAC and most other audio grabbers are. It works with a technology, which reads audio CDs almost perfectly. If there are any errors that can’t be corrected, it will tell you on which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could easily control it with e.g. the media player. With other audio grabbers you usually need to listen to every grabbed wave because they only do jitter correction. Scratched CDs read on CD- ROM drives often produce distortions. But listening to every extracted audio track is a waste of time. Exact Audio Copy conquers these problems by making use of several technologies like multi-reading with verify and AccurateRip. ↓ 02 – foobar2000 | Windows. foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats. It supports audio formats such as MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, SND and more with additional components. Gapless playback. Advanced tagging capabilities. Support for ripping Audio CDs as well as transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component. ↓ 03 – fre:ac | Windows | macOS. fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various popular formats and encoders. It currently converts between MP3, MP4/M4A, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, WAV and Bonk formats. With fre:ac you easily rip your audio CDs to MP3 or WMA files for use with your hardware player or convert files that do not play with other audio software. You can even convert whole music libraries retaining the folder and filename structure. The integrated CD ripper supports the CDDB/freedb online CD database. It will automatically query song information and write it to ID3v2 or other title information tags. Works great on Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Apple’s macOS. Converter for MP3, MP4/M4A, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, WAV and Bonk formats Integrated CD ripper with CDDB/freedb title database support Multi-core optimized encoders to speed up conversions on modern PCs Full Unicode support for tags and file names. ↓ 04 – FLAC Frontend | Windows. FLAC Frontend is a convenient way for Windows users not used to working with command lines to use the official FLAC tools. It accepts WAVE, W64, AIFF and RAW files for encoding and outputs FLAC or OGG-FLAC files. It is able to decode FLAC files, test them, fingerprint them and re-encode them. It has drag-and-drop support too. It is tested on Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7, but should work with Windows XP SP2 or newer. It requires .NET 2.0 or later. ↓ 05 – X Lossless Decoder | macOS. X Lossless Decoder (XLD) is a tool for OS X that is able to decode/convert/play various ‘lossless’ audio files. The supported audio files can be split into some tracks with cue sheet when decoding. XLD supports the following formats (Ogg) FLAC (.flac/.ogg), Monkey’s Audio (.ape), Wavpack (.wv), TTA (.tta), Apple Lossless (.m4a) [10.4 and later], TAK (.tak) [Requires Wine], Shorten (.shn) [SHN v3 only] and AIFF, WAV, etc. Other formats supported by Libsndfile are also decodable. XLD uses not a decoder frontend but library to decode, so no intermediate files are generated. All of the supported formats can be directly split with the cue sheet. XLD also supports so-called ’embedded’ or ‘internal’ cue sheets. ↓ 06 – Clementine | Windows | Linux. Clementine is a multiplatform music player. It is inspired by Amarok 1.4, focusing on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing your music. Visualizations from projectM Lyrics and artist biographies and photos Transcode music into MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Speex, FLAC or AAC Edit tags on MP3 and OGG files, organise your music Download missing album cover art from Last.fm. ↓ 07 – xACT | macOS. xACT stands for X Audio Compression Toolkit. It is a GUI based front end for the Unix applications Shorten (3.6.1), shntool (3.0.10), monkey’s audio compressor (3.99), flac (1.2.1), wavpack (4.60.1), TTA (3.4.1) and cdda2wav 3.0 (with paranoia support). It also uses sox ( 14.3.1), LAME 3.98.4, AtomicParsley 0.9.0 (for AAC tagging) id3tool (1.2a) and mp4v2 1.91. It executes the basic commands of these applications and adds other features to speed up productivity in creation/use of etree.org. ↓ 08 – LameXP | Windows | Linux. LameXP is a graphical user-interface (front-end) for various audio encoders: It allows you to convert your audio files from one audio format to another one in the most simple way. Despite its name, LameXP is not only a front-end for the LAME MP3 encoder, but supports a wide range of output formats, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, AAC/MP4, FLAC, AC-3 and Wave Audio. The number of supported input formats is even bigger! Furthermore LameXP not only runs on Windows XP, but also on Windows 7, 8 and 10 as well as many other operating systems. Currently the following output formats (audio encoders) are supported by LameXP: Ogg Vorbis by Xiph.org, using the OggEnc2/libvorbis encoder with aoTuV [built-in] Opus Interactive Audio Codec by Xiph.org and Mozilla, using the Opus-Tools [built-in] MPEG Audio-Layer III (MP3), using the LAME encoder [built-in] Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), using Nero AAC or QAAC encoder [separate download] Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) [built-in] ATSC A/52 (aka “AC-3”), using the Aften encoder [built-in] Monkey’s Audio (APE), lossless audio compression [built-in] DCA, using the DCA Enc encoder software (still experimental) [built-in] Uncompressed PCM / Waveform Audio File (WAV/RIFF) ↓ 09 – CDex | Windows. CDex can extract the data directly (digital) from an Audio CD, which is generally called a CD Ripper or a CDDA utility. The resulting audio file can be a plain WAV file (useful for making compilation audio CDs) or the ripped audio data can be compressed using an audio encoder such as MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA or OGG. In addition, WAV files on the hard drive can be converted to a Compressed Audio File (and vice versa). CDex also supports many audio file tag formats like the ID3V1 and ID3V2 tags, which can be automatically inserted as part of the ripping process. Many encoders are supported, to name a few: Lame MP3 encoder 3.99.5 – MPEG Audio Layer III (.mp3) FLAC encoder 1.31 – Free Lossless Audio Codec (.flac) Ogg Vorbis encoder – Ogg 1.3.2 and Vorbis 1.3.4 (.ogg .oga) Monkey’s Audio encoder – Lossless Audio(.ape) Microsoft WMA encoder – Windows Media Audio (.wma) Internal MP2 encoder – MPEG Audio Layer 2 (.mp2) Yamaha VQF encoder – TwinVQ (.vqf) Astrid / Quartex AAC encoder Psytel AAC encoder External Xing encoder WAV output encoder FAAC encoder – Freeware Advanced Audio Coder FAAD2 decoder Gogo-no- coda encoder External musepack encoder NTT VQF encoder Windows MP3 encoder (Fraunhofer MP3 encoder) Windows WMA8 encoder. ↓ 10 – CUERipper | Windows. CUERipper is an utility for extracting digital audio from CDs, an open source alternative to EAC. It has a lot fewer configuration options, so is somewhat easier to use, and is included in the CUETools package. It supports MusicBrainz and freeDB metadata databases, AccurateRip and CTDB. What is FLAC? The high-def MP3 explained. CNET explains what FLAC is, where to buy music in the format, and how to play it on your phone, computer or hi-fi. FLAC is an open-source file format which offers true-CD quality rips at half the size. In the late 1990s, one of the original portable music file formats -- the MP3 -- was causing quite a bit of bother mainly due to user's illegal sharing over Napster. While MP3 eventually prevailed, there is an even better choice for high-quality music downloads, and it's playable on your favorite device. It's even in your music streams. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a musical file format that offers bit-perfect copies of CDs but at half the size. It is compatible with many phones (including the iPhone -- with an app), portable music players (PMP) including the PonoPlayer and hi-fi components. FLAC files are available for roughly the same price as the equivalent MP3 in online stores and sound much better. Related stories. To see where FLAC has come from and where it is headed, you only need to look at the history of its "lossy" predecessor. Though MP3.com was one of the first sites to sell MP3s in 1999, dedicated players like the Rio PMP300 were subject to legal action by record companies. Yet when the iPod was released in 2001, it helped to legitimize the format, and today MP3s are now sold by most online music stores. (Disclosure: MP3.com no longer sells MP3s and is now owned by CBS Interactive, parent company of CNET.) FLAC, ahh-ahhh, it'll save every one of us* One of the best FLAC players available is Roon, a high-end music player for PC and Mac. Screenshot by Ty Pendlebury/CNET. Until recently, the music format FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) enjoyed a similar "pirates-only" reputation to MP3 because of its lack of Digital Rights Management (DRM), but FLAC has the potential to reach a larger audience than just audiophiles and tech enthusiasts. Currently, almost every record label is on board with the format, and consumers can buy lossless music from both major and indie acts for the same price as the iTunes Store. FLAC first emerged in 2001 as an open-source alternative to other lossless formats emerging at the time. These included Apple Lossless (ALAC), Microsoft's WAV (Waveform Audio Format) and WMA Lossless. But these competitive formats do have their disadvantages. While ALAC has a loyal following among iPod and iPhone users, it hasn't seen much uptake outside of Apple products. The WAV format is also popular, and it's compatible with iOS devices, but its biggest problems are that file sizes are very large, and it can't retain "tag" data -- artist, album name, lyrics, and so on -- in the way the other formats can. FLAC, on the other hand, not only supports tags but is also compatible with most music players. Apple is the only real holdout here, for while there was talk in 2017 of hardware support in both the iPhone 8 and X nothing has materialized. However, there are simple workarounds for iOS and Mac users. *With apologies to Queen. What's the difference between MP3 and FLAC? MP3 is a lossy format, which means parts of the music are shaved off to reduce the file size to a more compact level. It is supposed to use "psychoacoustics" to delete overlapping sounds, but it isn't always successful. Typically, cymbals, reverb and guitars are the sounds most affected by MP3 compression and can sound really distorted or "crunchy" when too much compression is applied. Like MP3 before it, FLAC has been embraced by the music industry as a cost-effective way to distribute CD-or-better-quality music, and it doesn't have the auditory problems of MP3s. FLAC is lossless and more like a ZIP file -- it comes out sounding the same when it is unzipped. Previously the only way to get "lossless" files was via the uncompressed CD formats CDA or WAV, but neither is as space-efficient as FLAC. The Naim mu-so is a high-end wireless speaker that supports FLAC. While FLAC files are up to six times larger than an MP3, they are half the size of a CD, and can have the same boost in audio quality. Furthermore, FLAC is not just restricted to 16-bit (CD quality), and you can buy files up to 24-bit/192kHz for another potential boost in performance. While the effects of better-than-CD quality are highly debated , companies like Neil Young's Pono staked their reputations on its benefits. But regardless of whether you are using 16- or 24-bit quality files, FLAC is here to stay. Experts such as Malcolm Hawksford, professor of psychoacoustics at Essex University, say that despite competition from proprietary formats like MQA and DSD the humble FLAC is still competitive. "FLAC has a place in the future for high-quality audio. It is good for transporting files on the internet as it typically halves download time. It is unlikely that for lossless compression there will be significant improvements," Hawksford wrote on Bowers & Wilkins' Society of Sound blog. While physical discs are still popular, their usefulness will eventually be eclipsed by the convenience of purely digital files: whether that means streaming or software files stored on your network or in the cloud. As a format FLAC will probably never be as popular a format as CD and DVD were in their heydays, but it's quickly become the format of choice for people who care about sound quality. FLAC versus streaming. FLAC downloads have one major competitor: streaming. While audiophiles are mostly concerned with music bought from music stores like Bandcamp and HD Tracks, it's not the only option available to people interested in high quality music. At the lower end of the scale, Pandora and Rhapsody have been streaming for years at bit-rates between 128kbps and 192kbps but they're no match for lossless FLAC in the audio department. However there are several major streaming services that offer very high sound quality -- Spotify, Tidal and soon Qobuz -- and depending on the record, they can be indistinguishable from the CD. While Spotify content is ripped in 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis, it's Tidal that offers the biggest alternative to personal collections as it's also based on FLAC. The company is also able to offer hi-res music by adding Meridian's MQA technology for compatible devices. By contrast, Qobuz offers hi-res FLAC streaming without the use of a proprietary wrapper, but the trade-off is much larger file sizes not suitable for the train. In the meantime, both Spotify and Tidal let you download tracks for offline listening (with a paid subscription), and both catalogs are quite impressive. But it's not just Tidal and Qobuz that offer lossless streaming: there are othe up-and-comers as well. While CD-ripping service Murfie was one of the first sites to offer true-quality streaming, it's currently only for customers who pay an additional $99 fee (roughly converting to £80 and AU$140), and only for the CDs they currently own. Meanwhile, Deezer Elite is another service that offers lossless streaming but currently only to users of Sonos . Stars including Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Deadmau5 and Kanye West called for a fairer deal at the launch of Jay Z's Tidal streaming service. While the world is swiftly moving toward streaming, FLAC does offers several advantages over the Spotifys and Tidals of this world. Firstly, you only need to pay once for a FLAC album. With a streaming service, you'd need to pony up for a subscription fee for the rest of your life or lose access to your carefully curated music collection. Secondly, you don't need an internet connection to listen to your music, and while the Offline modes of both Tidal and Spotify enable you to use it on the subway, it still needs to be connected to the 'net at some point to get the files. What if your music player doesn't have apps or network capability? For inexpensive music players like the Sony A17 , a set of FLAC files make the most sense. Where can I get FLAC files? If you want to support the artist, there are several sites that let you purchase FLAC files. There are two main ways to get your FLAC files legally: ripping from CD or purchasing from a digital store. Ripping is easy to do but you will need the right software for your computer. However, there are some devices that enable you to rip and store FLAC files on a networked hard drive without having to ever touch a PC; the Bluesound Vault is one of these. If you'd rather pay someone else to do that for you, we cover our favorite sites for buying FLAC files here . If you want to find music and don't know which site the music is on, do a Google search for the name of the artist/album and "digital." How do I play FLAC files? FLAC Player is one of the many apps for iOS that enables FLAC playback. iOS: There is still one hurdle preventing FLAC's full-scale adoption: the Apple iPhone and other iOS devices don't support within iTunes. With every major edition of iOS and iTunes, we secretly hope for FLAC support, but we may never get it. While Apple announced its Mastered for iTunes program (24-bit/44.1kHz) several years ago, the company has moved on to more profitable and immediate concerns such as Apple Music . However, there are several apps available in the iTunes Store that do support the FLAC format and even let you stream them between devices on your network via AirPlay and DLNA. Apps available from the App Store include FLAC Player, MediaConnect and Capriccio. Android: Users of Google's phone OS don't need to worry as much about FLAC support; from Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) onward the OS supports the file format natively. Even if you have an older Android phone, manufacturers like HTC and Samsung have added FLAC support to their software media players. Nonetheless, good apps to try from Google Play are Rocket Music Player, Player Pro -- which also supports high- res -- and Bubble UPnP (which includes DLNA support and also Tidal integration). Windows and Mac: If you're a Windows 10 user, you can play FLAC files natively in the operating system. For older Windows versions, there is a Windows Media Player plug-in, but the players most recommended by audiophiles are Roon, Media Monkey and JRiver. Meanwhile Mac users can download Roon, Fluke for basic support for FLAC in iTunes or Songbird (also on PC). The PonoPlayer was one of the most high-profile FLAC devices but it was discontinued in 2017. Portable: While Android MP3 players have dwindled in popularity, they have been replaced by high-res portable players like Sony's Walkman NW-WM1 and the now-discontinued PonoPlayer designed to support FLAC natively, up to 24-bit/192kHz. Meanwhile, traditional players by Sony, iRiver and FiiO can typically play back FLAC. Getting quality that's measurably better than your phone will cost you though, with models from Astell & Kern costing into the thousands. However, players such as the Sony A30 Walkman A Series promise 45 hours of battery life and start at about $220 (roughly £170 and AU$310). See CNET's best players that support FLAC here . The Google Home Max supports both streaming and downloaded FLAC files via Chromecast. Hi-fi: Of course, the biggest advantage to FLAC files is that they are ideally suited to listening on a hi-fi device. In the last few years, a wealth of streaming audio players have appeared with lossless FLAC playback one of their many benefits. The least expensive of these is the $35, £30 or AU$59 Chromecast Audio but these multiroom music systems also support the format. If you own a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, PC or even a phone you can serve FLAC files to any number of DLNA for media streamers--what does it all mean? in your AV system including TVs, Roku boxes, receivers and more. If the device connects to the internet, it's most likely to also support DLNA, and though FLAC isn't officially part of the DLNA specification, it usually comes along for the ride anyway. Conclusion. Though streaming services may come and go, and even the long-term prospects of Spotify are not assured , a FLAC file is like a CD: once you buy it or rip it, it's yours forever (barring storage catastrophes). FLAC may never actually supplant MP3, but if you care about sound quality, then FLAC is undoubtedly your best option -- both now and into the foreseeable future. Editors' note, October 28, 2018 : This article was originally published in October 2012 and has been updated with new information.