2020 Lossless Codec Shootout

[Five]

Updated 2020-04-03

mostly every dead or alive codec out there. 16bit/44.1kHz only this round. everything tested that it decompresses accurately (certain unlisted codecs failed, at least on my win10). flake level 12 is non-standard and not allowed at ttd, like most of the codecs listed here. I'll add a couple more when I get to it. let's check the results!

Blind Melon 1990-xx-xx The Goodfoot Demos 2020 Phase Fix Edition (16-bit) (FLAC)

.extension (software version setting) -- size MB (size bytes)

.wav -- 299 MB (313,985,296 bytes)

.zip (7zip v19.00 maximum) -- 277 MB (291,191,149 bytes)
.zip (7zip v19.00 ultra) -- 277 MB (290,995,608 bytes)
.mkw (mkwcon v1.0.2) -- 226 MB (237,354,796 bytes)
.rhl (edgesounds rathole v3.1.0) -- 219 MB (229,791,991 bytes)
.7z (7zip v19.00 ultra) -- 216 MB (226,541,778 bytes)
.7z (7zip v19.00 maximum) -- 216 MB (226,540,465 bytes)
.7z (7zip v19.00 normal) -- 215 MB (226,479,923 bytes)
.lw (litewave v1.0, v1.0.011 level 100) -- 202 MB (211,888,189 bytes)
.kxs (kexis v0.2.2 best) -- 195 MB (205,437,136 bytes)

.shn (shorten v3.6.1) -- 195 MB (205,056,884 bytes)

.wma (windows media format v9.2 lossless) -- 188 MB (197,880,742 bytes)
.bonk (bonk v0.6) -- 184 MB (193,608,722 bytes)
.mp3 (mp3hd v1.1.7 lossless) -- 183 MB (192,446,810 bytes)
.csp (audiozip v3.0 maximum) -- 183 MB (192,069,995 bytes)
.tta (true audio v3.4.1) -- 182 MB (191,423,037 bytes)

.flac (flac v1.3.2 level 8) -- 181 MB (190,589,930 bytes)

.flac (cuetools.flaccl.cmd v2.1.6 level 8) -- 181 MB (190,173,878 bytes)
.flac (cuetools.flake v2.1.6 level 8)-- 181 MB (190,111,694 bytes)
.wv (wavpack v5.2.0 high) -- 180 MB (189,763,982 bytes)
.wv (wavpack v5.2.0 very high) -- 179 MB (187,900,660 bytes)
.flac (flake v0.11 level 12) -- 178 MB (187,326,178 bytes)
.rka (rk audio v1.07 level 3 max) -- 177 MB (186,355,446 bytes)
.pac (lpac v3.08 extra high) -- 175 MB (183,528,838 bytes)
.ofr (optim frog v5.100 best new) -- 173 MB (182,445,692 bytes)

.ape (monkey's audio v3.99-u4-b5-s6 ultra) -- 172 MB (180,863,036 bytes)
.ape (monkey's audio v3.99-u4-b5-s6 insane) -- 171 MB (179,884,688 bytes)

.tak (tom's lossless audio kompressor v2.3.0 strongest) -- 171 MB (179,649,028 bytes)
.als (MPEG-4 ALS Audio Lossless Coding RM22 optimum) -- 170 MB (178,277,470 bytes)
.la (lossless audio v0.4b high) -- 167 MB (175,769,536 bytes)
.ofr (optimfrog v5.100 preset max) -- 167 MB (175,418,481 bytes)

[Five]

a couple more added

1998 comparison, done much better than mine but in most cases out of date codec revisions.
http://www.firstpr.com.au/audiocomp/lossless/index.html

[pawel]

Five, flac is open source, stable, and widely used also by high end audio devices. So, it's rather academic or apothecary contemplation how many kb we may save using something else

[Five]

filesize matters in the pro world! that is why every station is broadcasting lossy after price of hd dropped a lot.

studio outtakes that will probably never get played again, complete audio masters of film outtakes, etc.

a couple updates added above

for us, of course we use flac. ofr will burn up batteries like no tomorrow home comp is fine with minimum 500mHz cpu.

here's another speed test from 2005, before ofr moved into first. my modern computer takes hardly any time to compress anything. I used to wait 20mins for a flac -8 set to compress in those old days.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060610...comparison.htm