sciroccorrado
A2OC Donor
As a means of giving Johnyfartbox his post back I'll start a dedicated Audio Format/Listening thread here to discuss such matters 
I'll start with a response to "What is APE music format"
APE files (or MonkeyAudio) are/were a bit like the BETAMAX version of FLAC (ie technically superior, but not well supported) - it was started by the guys who would eventually go on to produce J-River's Media Center as an alternative to FLAC and gives better compression/decompression performance, but unfortunately because it wasn't as open source as FLAC its take up was slow and limited, hence it's virtual disappearance nowadays and lack of recent development.
There is no point in talking about sound quality, as neither alter the actual "bits" at all, that being the point, so the output from a FLAC file and an APE file will be identical from identical sources/output.
I have a number of early noughties tracks stored in APE, mainly "needle drops" recorded from vinyl[SUP]1[/SUP], but recently I have been toying with the idea of re-working them as FLAC files for longevity. The only method I have of playing them now is on PC and I've given up trying to get a CD-Writing tool that will read them properly.
As to my listening preferences - I have several setups in different parts of the house - in my living room I have a custom built Raspberry Pi front end connected to my 2TB disc of FLAC files, outputting in 24/96 to a '90s Denon PMA350, then outputting to 2 sets of Mordaunt Short speakers (MS30s and MS20s) mounted above each other. For "portable" I have a Fiio X5 Mk 2 "Music player", onto which I put selected FLACs, then listen on Grado Labs 350 cans. In my office I have an early 90s NAD amp outputting to similarly aged Mordaunt Short speakers (MS30s). I'm quite old school in my listening habits really, having been honed in the music industry in the 80s and 90s. Similar to Timmus, I know what I like, and it's a very subjective thing anyway.
I'll prattle on about the relative merits of MP3s/FLAC files sometime when I have more time
[SUP]1[/SUP] This is actually one place where FLAC files come into their own when "ripping" vinyl (and to a similar extent compact cassettes - remember those?). I am also an avid vinyl collector, but hate the fact that each time you put the needle on the record you lose a tiny amount of the quality, so my answer is to record them onto digital format. I tend to record them in 24/96 format which is MUCH higher quality and bandwidth than CD and tends to keep the "warmth" you get from the vinyl (which is what audiophiles will tell you is the main advantage of vinyl). The downside of this is of course the amount of memory/hard disk space that this format takes up. A prime example of this was a Cassingle of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes (Approximately 20 minutes) which in MP3 format took up ~50MB, normal "CD" FLAC took up ~100MB - but in 24/96 FLAC took up about 750MB - too much even to fit onto a data CD. Using APE I managed to get this down to ~600MB - back in the early noughties you needed a fairly beefy PC to be able to decode and actually play that, but nowadays my phone will do it
I'll start with a response to "What is APE music format"
APE files (or MonkeyAudio) are/were a bit like the BETAMAX version of FLAC (ie technically superior, but not well supported) - it was started by the guys who would eventually go on to produce J-River's Media Center as an alternative to FLAC and gives better compression/decompression performance, but unfortunately because it wasn't as open source as FLAC its take up was slow and limited, hence it's virtual disappearance nowadays and lack of recent development.
There is no point in talking about sound quality, as neither alter the actual "bits" at all, that being the point, so the output from a FLAC file and an APE file will be identical from identical sources/output.
I have a number of early noughties tracks stored in APE, mainly "needle drops" recorded from vinyl[SUP]1[/SUP], but recently I have been toying with the idea of re-working them as FLAC files for longevity. The only method I have of playing them now is on PC and I've given up trying to get a CD-Writing tool that will read them properly.
As to my listening preferences - I have several setups in different parts of the house - in my living room I have a custom built Raspberry Pi front end connected to my 2TB disc of FLAC files, outputting in 24/96 to a '90s Denon PMA350, then outputting to 2 sets of Mordaunt Short speakers (MS30s and MS20s) mounted above each other. For "portable" I have a Fiio X5 Mk 2 "Music player", onto which I put selected FLACs, then listen on Grado Labs 350 cans. In my office I have an early 90s NAD amp outputting to similarly aged Mordaunt Short speakers (MS30s). I'm quite old school in my listening habits really, having been honed in the music industry in the 80s and 90s. Similar to Timmus, I know what I like, and it's a very subjective thing anyway.
I'll prattle on about the relative merits of MP3s/FLAC files sometime when I have more time
[SUP]1[/SUP] This is actually one place where FLAC files come into their own when "ripping" vinyl (and to a similar extent compact cassettes - remember those?). I am also an avid vinyl collector, but hate the fact that each time you put the needle on the record you lose a tiny amount of the quality, so my answer is to record them onto digital format. I tend to record them in 24/96 format which is MUCH higher quality and bandwidth than CD and tends to keep the "warmth" you get from the vinyl (which is what audiophiles will tell you is the main advantage of vinyl). The downside of this is of course the amount of memory/hard disk space that this format takes up. A prime example of this was a Cassingle of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes (Approximately 20 minutes) which in MP3 format took up ~50MB, normal "CD" FLAC took up ~100MB - but in 24/96 FLAC took up about 750MB - too much even to fit onto a data CD. Using APE I managed to get this down to ~600MB - back in the early noughties you needed a fairly beefy PC to be able to decode and actually play that, but nowadays my phone will do it
