I have been encoding my cd's using FLAC for archiving purposes. when I highligh a FLAC file it says that it is in fact compressed. usually about 1/3 of the original file. so is FLAC accually loseless or is it better to back up using wave files?
There's a lot of 'wasted space' in WAV. FLAC, like ZIP or RAR simply removes the 'wasted space'. Lossless compressors simply put that wasted and redundant material back in when they de-code, so the output is an exact replica of the original.
