Samples For Testing Audio Codecs

These are samples (which range in length from 5 to 30 seconds) used to test audio codec quality

See discussion at ff123's Home Page

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is used to compress and decompress the files on this page. FLAC is open-source and multi-platform. The following links are geared toward the win32 platform (Windows 9x, NT, etc.), but from the download page, you can find binaries for many platforms, or you can download the source to compile your own binary.

Default compression/speed trade off is setting -5. For a small increase in compression with a large decrease in speed, use the max compression setting of -8.

FLAC Download Page; win32 download includes command-line program and Winamp plugin
Speek's FLAC win32 Frontend; shell for the command-line program
FLAC win32 bundle with command-line program, Frontend, and Winamp plugin
FlacDrop; another shell for the command-line program

Frontend usage:

To compress: use default option (or enter -8 for max compression), press encode
To decompress: use -d option, press decode

FlacDrop usage:

To compress: set desired compression level, drag and drop one or more files on to FlacDrop
To decompress: type -d in custom setting; drag and drop on to FlacDrop

Command-line usage (omit -8 for default encoding speed and size):

To compress: flac -8 test.wav
To decompress: flac -d test.flac

128 kbit/s Tests

64 kbit/s Test [Test is closed. Only original files are available]

Some samples from other listening tests

Other prospective samples

ff123's Home Page