Welcome 2 FLAC>2>DAC

So...what the hell is FLAC>2>DAC anyway? Well, I love digital music so much, I wanted a forum where others like myself can just chat and geek-out about it.

How did I come to love digital music so much? Well, I think it has to start with loving music so much. Even though I was only 14, I was already a "hi-fi" and music nut, in 1982...when for all intents and purposes, the Compact Disc was introduced. I fell hard...lol. At 14, my "turntable" was far from "hi-end"...and the experience I had listening to records, is exactly the kind of thing the record industry was trying to counter with the introduction of the CD. Just imagine...as I did to myself...perfect, digital sound; indestructible, plastic discs...that never get dirty, scratched, or warped. It was too good to be true. It was actually, as we now know; the CD was never to live up to the promise of "perfect sound forever"...but that hardly mattered a 14 year-old, budding audiophile.

I read with wide eyes, about the fantastic machines...but 14 year-old, budding audiophile or not...the price tags were no where near within my reach. That is, until 1984 (or maybe '85). What happened in ’84-’85? The Technics SL-P2 was released! IIRC, this was the first CD player to break the 4-figure barrier. Still no easy purchase for a then 16 year-old, but I worked 2 jobs that summer, to save up and buy the machine. I even bought a few CDs…from one of the two places I worked…BEFORE I had the player.

So…that’s how it all STARTED. After a while…after that initial “great” sound started to become more and more routine…something started to feel as though it were missing. You see, even back in the day of the crappy, Vinyl albums, I was an avid recorder. Oh man; I had it down to a fine science. You remember; you wanted to search for your peaks (something the SL-P2 did very nicely), and make sure they pushed the VU as high as comfortable…without saturating and causing distortion. The technique, and mixing of tapes; it was a true labor of love. And then, it hit me; the yearning. Wouldn’t it just be the ULTIMATE if you could record to CDs! Perfect sound to perfect sound…not perfect sound, down to “lesser” cassette tape (Chrome Metal or not…lol).

Well…you can see where this is headed. Once they found a way to make CDs recordable, the floodgates opened and all hell broke loose. Skip ahead to about 6 years ago, or so…and I had accumulated somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5,000 discs (probably 2,000 Silver, the rest otherwise).

However, about 6 years ago, I found I just wasn’t sitting and listening to my stereo and several thousands of discs as much. Why; like many, I had discovered online streaming services, like Rhapsody. For someone who loved so much, and so many kinds of music…to the point where they have accumulated a whole houseful of CDs…a service like Rhapsody was a godsend. If I wanted to check out this new album, or the latest offering from that artist; no need to go spend $12 on the disc…I could just listen while I was working at the computer.

But we all know the story; it’s like straight out of the marketing campaigns for the digital streamers like Squeezebox and Sonos. “Want to stream the music you listen to on your computer, to the good speakers in your house”? You bet I did; and my love-affair with digital music continued, and took the huge leap from my crappy-sounding PC to 2-channel audio system.