[Flac-dev] Variable Bit Rate

[Richard Ash]

On Mon, 2011-05-23 at 17:25 -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
> 2011/5/23 Scott C. Brown 02 <Scott.C.Brown.02 at alum.dartmouth.org>:
> > --- Dennis Brunnenmeyer <dennisb at chronometrics.com> wrote:
> >  I've been told that FLAC files, when played back into a high-quality sound system,
> > fail to properly reproduce certain kinds of sounds, like ringing bells or the
> > 'clang' of a triangle.
> > --- end of quote ---
> > maybe he's been reading threads like this:
> >
> > http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=92852.20
> 
> i guess we need to teach people about the cmp(1) and diff(1) commands.

I did once have a PII machine where the pitch of the built-in sound
device audibly varied with system activity (either CPU of HDD, I didn't
do a lot of testing), but I tended to think that was down to the
lousyness of the sound, not the formats I was playing.

I suspect in fact that the difference in volume in that forum post
explains the change in perceived sound quality completely, human hearing
being very sensitive to that sort of thing. As to why the volume doesn't
match, I suspect that one of the playback chains is integer all the way
and the other is float, with the conversion being not quite right ...

Richard