And I'm loving it. I can't believe that I've been listening to those 128kbps for all these years!

I have a question. I have a Hardon/Kardon Audio System with a normal 6 CD-Changer in my home. How can I burn these lossless files to CD-ROM to play them through my system? (I can't wait to hear them on my Infinity Crescendo's.)

Thanks,
Nick

http://www.burrrn.net/?page_id=6

Burnnn can do the job for you, easy drag and drop and the good thing about the program that is it can recognize FLAC files. even has an option for cue sheets too.

- David

You have converted from 128kbps to FLAC?

128kbps MP3s...

Man I sure hope you didn't transcode from 128Kbps mp3s to FLAC...

So your 128kbps MP3 files have been converted to FLAC and they sound better now?

If so, sorry to break it to you, you're still listening to same quality as before.

This must be a wind-up.

you cannot trascode from low quality to high quality and ever get anything good. Your just amplifying a lossy file. Only rip cd's into flac or download flac.

You basically cannot transcode anything to flac, just rip and encode the original source cd to flac.

If you are ripping your CD's directly to FLAC, good for you.

But to echo what others are saying, if you are converting your MP3's to FLAC, you are only wasting hard drive space. The resulting FLAC files will only be as good as the lossy MP3 source.

I think you're reading something into his post that he did not say. He now is using FLAC instead of 128kbps mp3 files, not necessarily (and almost certainly not) transcoding his old files.

Unless your Harmon/Kardon knows how play FLAC files, what you want is not CD-ROM but audio CD, also known as Redbook.

Let's hope, he has NOT converted/transcoded from mp3 source to flac,

but better he has ripped his flac files directly from CD (best way like described at http://www.high-quality.ch.vu imo).
So to answer his question,
several possibilities:
1. connect digitally your PC with your HK/amp, hopefully it has digital in.
Your PC should have soundcard which does not resample internally eg. 44.1 to 48 kHz, but optical or coaxial digital out.
2. if no digital connection possible, connect via analogue cables your PC to amp.
3. decode flac to wav and burn Audio-CD, or CD-Extra, Nero will do fine.
There's even flac plugin for Nero to drop flac files directly into Nero, or use the Burrrn,
or maybe even EAC as writer.

The recommended software player/decoder for 1. or 2. (or 3. decoding flac->wav) is foobar 2000 , or winamp, or, or...

(lol, soemhow only minority of posters here have answered his questions with these striking and simple answers, but quite a big number of posters took the negative interpretation of what he wrote...

edit:

reading his 2nd post in context, it could really lead to the understanding, he transcoded mp3-128 -> flac , though i believe, he wanted to express, he is converted in his mind, to encode to flac instead of mp3, hopefully, hm..)

I think many people here have a hard-on for their audio system.

I suspect that the OP has simply switched from MP3 to FLAC.

As already stated in the second post: use Burrrn to create audio CDs from your FLAC files.

Thanks for all the replies. I want to clear up any confusion. I am not converting my MP3's to FLAC files... Why in the world would I do that? I am simply ripping my Audio CD collections to FLAC now, instead of MP3, which I used to do before...

So, I have deduced the following:

I should convert to WAV (or use a FLAC plug-in for Nero, or alternatively use Burrrn) and then burn the files with Nero to my disks. I also have some FLAC files on my computer's hard drive, so I will be able to burn them that way too.

Is this all I should be aware of? Are there any things I should look out for when burning them?

Thanks,
Nick

EDIT: I'm re-reading the posts and I was using the word "convert" in a literal way. With convert, I mean stop using MP3 and switch to FLAC, not actually transcoding them to FLAC...

Sorry for the confusion.

Nick

Well, obviously you should use good quality blanks. Also, many people have a preference as to the speed of recording. Unfortunately I haven't perceived a real concensus on this issue. It is quite possibly a function of both your burner and the blank CDs that you use, so you may want to experiment. A very valuable tool for evaluating your results is Nero CD-DVD Speed.

1. If you stick around here long enough you will find some people who believe that you can get the original quality back by converting an mp3 to flac. They quickly get educated on that point.

2. If you use Nero to create audio cds from flacs, you can use a plugin to avoid having to decode to wav first, but be aware that Nero will insert 2 seconds of silence between each track by default and you have to remember to tell it not to do so. I do not believe that there is a way to alter this by default and you have to remember to change it for each disk you burn.

Nick,

Since I'm not sure anyone has actually said it yet: Congratulations! You have joined the ranks of folks who are acting to preserve the quality of their music, and are not satisfied to simply hear the lowest common denominator (that is, anything a 128kbps MP3 doesn't filter out) when it comes to musical reproduction. It's an accomplishment, and a "conversion experience" many folks still wouldn't understand.

That said, you will probably find that there are still times you'd like to take along a selection of your MP3s, for portable listening (long road trips, audiobooks, etcetera). One of the nicest things about the choice you have made is that you can now do so simply by encoding those MP3 files - or any other format, for that matter - from your FLAC files as needed/desired. Just don't make the mistake of erasing your FLAC files after doing so! (Not that you would... it sounds like you've got a working understanding of what's going on here. And you may never find a reason to use MP3 again, if your portable devices have large enough hard drives and FLAC-compatible software. Just pointing out the option.)

Anyway, enjoy your newfound auditory freedom, and please don't take anyone's initially suspicious remarks as a reason to stop visiting Hydrogenaudio. The only reason such comments were made was that the whole MP3-to-lossless-and-it-sounds-so-much-better-now discussion has happened so many times, it's left folks a little wary of anyone who uses certain phrases without full clarity of intent. You've fixed that, so there's no harm/no foul.

- M.

Thanks for the replies and tips.

I will be sure to get rid of that 2 second gap because I will most likely use Nero to burn them. On my Treo, I use Pocket Player which, with a plugin, allows FLAC files to be opened. So, until I get a huge SD Card for my music (I only have a 1GB now) I will keep the MP3s, and only use FLAC with the songs I listen to a lot.

As for in-home listening, I will definitely be using FLAC when ripping my CDs.

Thanks Again for all the information!

Nick