FLAC vs MP3

[Timothy Stockman]

I got curious as to what the differences might be, "under the microscope" so to speak. So I took one of the MP3 files from my portable and the corresponding FLAC file from my server, then used Cool Edit to invert one and mix them to a difference file. Here are the clips:

http://proxy1.fielddiagnostics.com/~tps/time.html

I originally posted this to SteveHoffman.tv yesterday, but I thought it might also be of interest here.

[SuperQ]

Very cool. What mp3 encoder was used, with what options to create the mp3 from the original FLAC?

[Timothy Stockman]

Very cool. What mp3 encoder was used, with what options to create the mp3 from the original FLAC?

I used Winlame with the "high quality" setting (~190 kbps).

[Nonreality]

Pretty cool, can you tell the difference between the flac and mp3 versions of this in a blind test? This is not a very complex piece of music so just hearing the difference version seems like it could be noticeable but probably isn't. I'd be curious to see the same thing with a more complex piece. Thanks for posting, I hadn't known you could do this.