Audio Formats - What Does What and What It All Means

Sonic67

On my PC I can easily rip to WMA, MP3 or FLAC.

FLAC is lossless so that's the first advantage.

I can play FLAC from my NAS through my SONOS speakers, from a hard drive attached to my PS4 and through my home cinema, on my Android phone, through my cars head unit, and on my PCs.

The PS4 only does MP3, AAC and FLAC. So that alone means that for me WMA is out.

Supported file formats | PlayStation®4 User's Guide

Music
When using a USB storage device, your music files need to be in a folder named "Music" for your PS4™ system to recognise them.
Using DSEE HX™, you can listen to certain audio files (such as MP3) in high-resolution audio. When playing background music, participating in a party, or using the text-to-speech feature, however, audio output is in 48 kHz.

FLACMP3AAC (M4A)

Khankat

Many thanks. Most useful.

bamolleryd

What about lately much discussed and controversial Roon audio?

larkone

Roon is a hardware and software technology not a music format  -and what's controversial about that?

hififlame4ever

very well collated info on all the currently existing audio formats. I haven't come across such a concise but comprehensive explanation anywhere else online. thanks for posting.

Sonic67

No APE?

Monkey's Audio - Wikipedia

dannnielll

Hi ,i  came across the following Youtube video by accident and felt it needed to be shared ... These are also audio formats,but slightly different...  I really liked it.
Watch a stunning microscopic slow-motion video of a needle on a record - The Vinyl Factory

Soulman61

Great article. Certainly clarified things, for me.

Rob Sinden

If you interest in learning about formats is to enjoy your music at its best, I’d highly recommend subscribing to this guys free mailer AIX Records

He is a Mastering Engineer with 40 years in the business who is expert in analogue, CD and true Hi Res recording. If you are an audiophile, watching it may save you a fortune.

Here are some of his conclusions, but please subscribe at AIX and make up your own mind:-
Experienced audio engineers listening to professional audio equipment will struggle to tell the difference between the best Hi Res and Standard Res recordings95% of Hi-Res recordings are identical to Standard Res - just packaged in a bigger boxHow can a Pink Floyd recording mastered on tape now produce a Hi-Res format?Vinyl is inferior to CDAnything above 24/192 has no value even in studiosThe label “Hi Res” means nothingA remastered recording may sound better but it cannot be Hi ResThis video covers most of this......

Soulman61

Well Rob Sinden, that says it all. No format can improve on the quality of the original recording. So reissues of analogue recordings onto CD or better, can never be better than the original master tape, at best. As HiFi pundits have said for years, the source is the most important component of the audio setup.