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- Jul 21, 2020
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I always wondered if I get the same mastered version when I buy 44.1/16 FLAC files or a CD. Are these files in fact ripped CDs?
To find out I bought the new Avenged Sevenfold album twice (totally worth it ). The 44.1/16 FLAC @ 7digital and the CD via Amazon. The CD was then accurately ripped with EAC and to my surprise the two versions aren't the same.
I think different filters were used to downsample to 44/16. Here is the Delta Spectrogram of the first track:
These differences might not be audible at least for me (most Delta above 19k). But I'm still a bit disappointed. I always thought I would get the same version when I buy CD quality FLACs online. If it's not the same there potentially could be all sorts of changes (like watermarks etc). For my peace of mind I guess I'll stick to ripping CDs for now.
To find out I bought the new Avenged Sevenfold album twice (totally worth it ). The 44.1/16 FLAC @ 7digital and the CD via Amazon. The CD was then accurately ripped with EAC and to my surprise the two versions aren't the same.
I think different filters were used to downsample to 44/16. Here is the Delta Spectrogram of the first track:
These differences might not be audible at least for me (most Delta above 19k). But I'm still a bit disappointed. I always thought I would get the same version when I buy CD quality FLACs online. If it's not the same there potentially could be all sorts of changes (like watermarks etc). For my peace of mind I guess I'll stick to ripping CDs for now.
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