Which Lossless Audio Codec, and Why?

deadsquid puts forth a worthy follow up question to last week's query on audio codecs: "I'm about to re-rip my entire CD collection for the fourth time. I don't want to do it again, so have decided to invest in a small(ish) array and use a lossless codec to create a reference set of my music. From the reference, I plan on transcoding to a variety of bitrates (depending on where the final product will end up) and whichever format of the week suits the device(s) the transcoded content will ultimately sit on. I don't particularly care about encoding time, but would like something that transcodes nicely to MP3, WMA, OGG, and other formats in a reasonable length of time. I would like to ensure that track metadata is maintained in the reference, and is easily transferable when transcoded. I also want something that's not proprietary to an individual's or small group's whims. I'm thinking FLAC, but was wondering if other people had better experiences with other codecs. If you were to use a lossless encoding format, which would you use, and why?"

Comments

Re:Again?

[orangesquid]

Actually, if you get into signal processing and transmission line theory, you will see that cables make a difference, for the same reasons that you wouldn't use CAT3 wiring for gigabit networking or indoor extension cords outdoors in a thunderstorm. Of course, paying $50-$200 for a pair of headphones to use in a professional recording studio isn't unreasonable. Paying $2,000 for a pair of headphones to wear while jogging, on the other hand, is quite unreasonable. Sanity has a sliding scale.

But, yeah, there is a point at which you can't justify the extra cost, and you're just throwing away your money. It's like Joe Sixpack buying vintage wine when he can't tell the difference between it and the cheap stuff.

But, back on topic:

My experience with flac is that it is VERY quick to encode and decode. Compression isn't an order of magnitude like MP3, of course, but you might be able to shrink files by a significant quantity (not quite a clearance rack or going-out-of-business sale, but definitely like black Friday). Since it's so damn fast, it's trivial to re-encode flac to other formats.