By: Freddy Greene

Simply put PCM-WAV is the base standard and FLAC is simply a WAV file that uses compression to save space. But unlike MP3 there is no loss of audio when compressed or when decompressed for playback.

There are a myriad of sonic scanners out there to download to test files, although I simply run everything thru Adobe Audition and view the frequency analysis. Low/Poor quality MP3’s will have a complete frequency drop at 16K. Quality 320’s will drop off around 20k. The louder the music is played and the better the system, the more you need the best source file.