2020 Lossless Codec Shootout

[Five]

Updated 2020-04-03

mostly every dead or alive codec out there. 16bit/44.1kHz only this round. everything tested that it decompresses accurately (certain unlisted codecs failed, at least on my win10). flake level 12 is non-standard and not allowed at ttd, like most of the codecs listed here. I'll add a couple more when I get to it. let's check the results!

Blind Melon 1990-xx-xx The Goodfoot Demos 2020 Phase Fix Edition (16-bit) (FLAC) (http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=156645)

.extension (software version setting) -- size MB (size bytes)

.wav -- 299 MB (313,985,296 bytes)

.zip (7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) v19.00 maximum) -- 277 MB (291,191,149 bytes)
.zip (7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) v19.00 ultra) -- 277 MB (290,995,608 bytes)
.mkw (mkwcon (http://shnutils.freeshell.org/mkwcon/) v1.0.2) -- 226 MB (237,354,796 bytes)
.rhl (edgesounds rathole (http://www.edgesounds.com/) v3.1.0) -- 219 MB (229,791,991 bytes)
.7z (7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) v19.00 ultra) -- 216 MB (226,541,778 bytes)
.7z (7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) v19.00 maximum) -- 216 MB (226,540,465 bytes)
.7z (7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) v19.00 normal) -- 215 MB (226,479,923 bytes)
.lw (litewave (https://web.archive.org/web/20031203035107/http://www.clearjump.com:80/products/LiteWave.html) v1.0, v1.0.011 (https://web.archive.org/web/20031119030101/http://www.clearjump.com/download/index.html#LiteWave) level 100) -- 202 MB (211,888,189 bytes)
.kxs (kexis (https://www.rarewares.org/rrw/wavezip.php) v0.2.2 best) -- 195 MB (205,437,136 bytes)

.shn (shorten (http://shnutils.freeshell.org/shorten/) v3.6.1) -- 195 MB (205,056,884 bytes)

.wma (windows media format (https://www.microsoft.com) v9.2 lossless) -- 188 MB (197,880,742 bytes)
.bonk (bonk (http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/bonk) v0.6 (http://shnutils.freeshell.org/shntool/)) -- 184 MB (193,608,722 bytes)
.mp3 (mp3hd ( http://www.all4mp3.com/) v1.1.7 lossless) -- 183 MB (192,446,810 bytes)
.csp (audiozip (https://www.rarewares.org/rrw/audiozip.php) v3.0 maximum) -- 183 MB (192,069,995 bytes)
.tta (true audio (https://sourceforge.net/projects/tta/) v3.4.1) -- 182 MB (191,423,037 bytes)

.flac (flac (https://xiph.org/flac/) v1.3.2 level 8) -- 181 MB (190,589,930 bytes)

.flac (cuetools.flaccl.cmd (http://cue.tools/wiki/CUETools_FLAC_encoders_comparison) v2.1.6 level 8) -- 181 MB (190,173,878 bytes)
.flac (cuetools.flake (http://cue.tools/wiki/CUETools_FLAC_encoders_comparison) v2.1.6 level 8)-- 181 MB (190,111,694 bytes)
.wv (wavpack (http://www.wavpack.com/) v5.2.0 high) -- 180 MB (189,763,982 bytes)
.wv (wavpack (http://www.wavpack.com/) v5.2.0 very high) -- 179 MB (187,900,660 bytes)
.flac (flake (http://flake-enc.sourceforge.net/) v0.11 level 12) -- 178 MB (187,326,178 bytes)
.rka (rk audio (https://www.rarewares.org/rrw/rkau.php) v1.07 level 3 max) -- 177 MB (186,355,446 bytes)
.pac (lpac (https://www.rarewares.org/rrw/lpac.php) v3.08 extra high) -- 175 MB (183,528,838 bytes)
.ofr (optim frog (http://losslessaudio.org/) v5.100 best new) -- 173 MB (182,445,692 bytes)

.ape (monkey's audio (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=monkey%27s+audio) v3.99-u4-b5-s6 (http://shnutils.freeshell.org/shntool/) ultra) -- 172 MB (180,863,036 bytes)
.ape (monkey's audio (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=monkey%27s+audio) v3.99-u4-b5-s6 (http://shnutils.freeshell.org/shntool/) insane) -- 171 MB (179,884,688 bytes)

.tak (tom's lossless audio kompressor (http://www.thbeck.de/Tak/Tak.html#Links_TAK) v2.3.0 strongest) -- 171 MB (179,649,028 bytes)
.als (MPEG-4 ALS Audio Lossless Coding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Lossless_Coding) RM22 (http://shnutils.freeshell.org/shntool/) optimum) -- 170 MB (178,277,470 bytes)
.la (lossless audio (http://www.lossless-audio.com/) v0.4b high) -- 167 MB (175,769,536 bytes)
.ofr (optimfrog (http://losslessaudio.org/) v5.100 preset max) -- 167 MB (175,418,481 bytes)

[Five]

a couple more added

1998 comparison, done much better than mine but in most cases out of date codec revisions.
http://www.firstpr.com.au/audiocomp/lossless/index.html

[pawel]

Five, flac is open source, stable, and widely used also by high end audio devices. So, it's rather academic or apothecary contemplation how many kb we may save using something else :D

[Five]

filesize matters in the pro world! that is why every station is broadcasting lossy after price of hd dropped a lot.

studio outtakes that will probably never get played again, complete audio masters of film outtakes, etc.

a couple updates added above

for us, of course we use flac. ofr will burn up batteries like no tomorrow :lol: home comp is fine with minimum 500mHz cpu.

here's another speed test from 2005, before ofr moved into first. my modern computer takes hardly any time to compress anything. I used to wait 20mins for a flac -8 set to compress in those old days.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060610165724/http://members.home.nl/w.speek/comparison.htm