> I still listen to my dad's classic rock records from the 60s and enjoy the hell out of it. But they sound like shit. ;-) You know why they sound like that? B

> I still listen to my dad's classic rock records from the 60s and enjoy the hell out of it. But they sound like shit. ;-) You know why they sound like that? Because sound recording and copying technology was also shit. Garbage in, garbage out. FLAC was made 50+ years after these records, and is basically indistinguishable from the real thing when made from something close to the original WAV masters, and played back on decent but affordable equipment. Until recently, this wasn't possible. Not only that - with sufficient care, it will literally never degrade even by a single binary bit when it's being copied or stored, no matter how many times it's played or duplicated. I have no problems listening to a FLAC now, or when I'm 90. I'm sure my descendants, if they care about my taste in music, wouldn't mind listening to the same files (possibly transcoded to another lossy format, or somehow improved by [REDACTED]) well into the 22nd century.