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Best Audio Quality From The Internet Archive
Posted on 2025-07-15
Best Audio Quality From The Internet Archive
For the best quality audio from the Internet Archive/Live Music Archive download the flacs. You can use the flac files to burn CDs or just play them from your computer. On a good hifi system I can hear the difference between the CD quality and the mp3 quality. But the mp3s are good quality. When you play songs from the website you are hearing the mp3s. They sound good. Most people won't care.
Most uploaders upload the flacs. Many uploaders upload high resloution flacs, better than CD quality. The Internet Archive creates the mp3s from the flacs. The mp3 files are 192 kbps which is considered CD quality. Still, the flacs are better.
But anyone can download the flacs, burn cds or play them from a computer, and hear the best quality audio. High resolution flacs are not recommended for burning CDs. Play those from your computer.
If you are playing high resolution flacs from your computer you should use a digital output like spdif (optical or coax) or HDMI. Or use an audio interface like a usb sound card. Standard audio outputs on a computer are good for CD quality but are not really good enough for high resolution flacs.
Since I do radio production it's important that I start with an uncompressed file, like a flac or a wav. If I start with a compressed file, like an mp3, and I use that file in the radio show when I create the distribution copy of the show the distribution file will be an mp3. That means I will be recompressing the mp3. This will result in reduced audio quality and can cause artifacts. Recompressing mp3s is not recommended.
Also when I create my mp3 distribution files I use 320 kbps, the insane setting. It is very difficult to tell these files apart from the wav or flac files. That's how good mp3 files are at that bitrate.
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Posted on 2025-07-15
Best Audio Quality From The Internet Archive
For the best quality audio from the Internet Archive/Live Music Archive download the flacs. You can use the flac files to burn CDs or just play them from your computer. On a good hifi system I can hear the difference between the CD quality and the mp3 quality. But the mp3s are good quality. When you play songs from the website you are hearing the mp3s. They sound good. Most people won't care.
Most uploaders upload the flacs. Many uploaders upload high resloution flacs, better than CD quality. The Internet Archive creates the mp3s from the flacs. The mp3 files are 192 kbps which is considered CD quality. Still, the flacs are better.
But anyone can download the flacs, burn cds or play them from a computer, and hear the best quality audio. High resolution flacs are not recommended for burning CDs. Play those from your computer.
If you are playing high resolution flacs from your computer you should use a digital output like spdif (optical or coax) or HDMI. Or use an audio interface like a usb sound card. Standard audio outputs on a computer are good for CD quality but are not really good enough for high resolution flacs.
Since I do radio production it's important that I start with an uncompressed file, like a flac or a wav. If I start with a compressed file, like an mp3, and I use that file in the radio show when I create the distribution copy of the show the distribution file will be an mp3. That means I will be recompressing the mp3. This will result in reduced audio quality and can cause artifacts. Recompressing mp3s is not recommended.
Also when I create my mp3 distribution files I use 320 kbps, the insane setting. It is very difficult to tell these files apart from the wav or flac files. That's how good mp3 files are at that bitrate.
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