[dacrawdaddy]

Originally Posted by feralicious

This confuses me... then what is the point of getting a high quality show in lossless if you are going to listen to it compressed? Why not listen to the lossless files?

Supposedly, the audible frequencies of MP3, OGG, and other formats that are 'lossy' still fall well outside of the limitations of human ears. In other words, the lowest frequency ranges of these file formats are well below what we can hear, and the highs are well beyond what we can hear. So, technically, there's not going to be an audible difference between a (medium or high bitrate) MP3 and a SHN or FLAC file. So they are fine for personal use and for smaller storage size.

Problems pop up when these files are distributed, because during the conversion, they *have* experienced a significant drop in quality from the original SHN or FLAC files (whose frequency ranges are much greater than 'lossy' file types). The 'lossy' problem is exponentially multiplied when MP3-sourced CDs are EAC-ripped into "lossless" file types, converted to MP3 or other 'lossy' file types, then burned to CD again, and EAC-ripped again. ---Then there's an exponential loss of quality, than *does* make an audible difference. (Have you heard any of those terrible sounding MP3's that you used to be able to download from Napster or Kazaa? Probably came from MP3 sourced audio CD's ripped, burned and re-ripped again and again.)---

So the 'lossy' file types are OK for personal use ... and they usually only use about 10-40% of the hard drive space as 'lossless' files do. Anyway, I'm glad this community and others support technology and methods that educate about and support 'lossless' archival quality music.