Tubidy – High-quality MP3: how to get the best sound experience – Quite many people rely on music for entertainment, and even for stress relieving. Some even play music while doing their activities, such as driving, cooking, working, and so on. If you are one of these people, do you know that the format of the music affects its quality and sound experience?
MP3 has been the most famous and popular music format. But now, it has a strong competitor named FLAC. In this article, we’ll talk about MP3 vs FLAC: Understanding the Differences in Audio Formats.
About MP3
MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 is an audio format that has a compression level of approximately 95% of the original uncompressed audio size. Although the compression level is fairly huge, in fact, the audio quality remains well-maintained. This is why MP3 became so popular around the world.
Published in 1993, MP3 files are produced with distinctive bit rates, which determine the desired kb/second rate to stay different from the original data stream. Variable bit rates are sometimes used, which means that the bit rates can be changed by the algorithm to precisely maintain the complex audio parts.
Since its publication, MP3 has become the most famous and popular file format for songs. It led to the production of streaming devices, such as the popular MP3 player. With the rapid development of technology, MP3 still has its popularity up to now.
Pros
- A smaller file size compared to most other audio formats for easier streaming, storage, and distribution.
- MP3 files support most common smartphones, portable devices, and music players.
Cons
- Possible quality decrease due to a method underlying sound data storage.
About FLAC
Standing for Free Lossless Audio Codec, FLAC is an audio format that has a compression level of around 55% of the original uncompressed audio size. The percentage is still big, but FLAC files sound extremely similar to the original version. Introduced to the public for the very first time back in 2001, FLAC easily became a strong competitor of MP3.
FLAC aims to prevent audio copyright infringement. It’s mostly used to archive collections of music from vinyl records or CDs to keep the originality and quality. By default, FLAC supports Windows 10, Blackberry 10, Android, and Jolla. Also, you need media players or special apps to enjoy listening to FLAC songs. To fully enjoy the quality of FLAC, you need high-end equipment.
And even though you connect the right device to a Bluetooth speaker, the sound won’t be gone. So, you need to ensure there’s no additional codec disturbing the playback process.
Pros
- FLAC is better in reproducing higher frequencies and smooth background sound that tends to disappear in other formats.
- FLAC works in the lossless format to achieve the improved quality. The file maintains the original data of the record and keep most of the frequency range as a whole.
Cons
- Given the higher compression level, FLAC files require more CPU power to be decoded by the device processor.
- To be able to listen to FLAC files in most devices, it’s necessary for you to use certain software or third-party apps, especially on iOS devices as the audio format doesn’t support the operating system.
How to Get High-Quality MP3 Files
From the explanation above, we can see that FLAC has better audio quality than MP3. But it doesn’t mean you cannot have the best sound experience with MP3 files. So, high-quality MP3: how to get the best sound experience? You can do so by downloading MP3 files on reliable streaming platforms, such as Tubidy.
Tubidy is a streaming digital platform that allows users to download music in various file formats, including MP3. It makes sure that you can download your favourite music in high quality.
The Differences Between MP3 and FLAC
Based on the explanation, you probably already noticed what differentiates between MP3 and FLAC. We conclude it for you in these followings.
- File Size
With a top bit rate of 320kb per second, a song that lasts for 3 minutes in an MP3 file format will take up around 7MB of storage space. The same audio track will take around 28MB of storage space, which is 4 times bigger. Other factors that can affect MP3 file sizes are the selected dynamic range and bit depth.
- Audio Compression
Compression aims to reduce the dynamic range by strengthening soft sounds and reducing the loud sounds volume. On the other hand, FLAC uses lossless compression so that there are only minor changes in the reproduction of the original sound data.
- Sound Quality
FLAC provides high-resolution sample rates that make it way better compared to the quality of digital CDs. While MP3, given the compression done to minimize the file size, has lower sound quality than FLAC. – High-quality MP3: How to get the best sound experience.