Description of the audio formats used on the site

Lossless formats:
Lossless audio - audio compressed with special lossless audio codecs. Subsequently such audio can be restored in the original quality up to bit. Thus, you can take a ordinary Audio CD, save it in format WAV (shell for not compressed sound PCM), compress WAV with lossless codec, then decompress lossless to WAV, burn WAV to a blank CD, and eventually get an identical copy of source Audio CD. Archiving audio collection in lossless formats beneficial to those people, who are not satisfied with the quality of lossy formats. Using lossless compression, you will receive quality of uncompressed WAV with much smaller file size, but large compared to the lossy compression. To play back lossless audio to date can most programs-media players but those players who cannot, it is easy to teach after connect the appropriate plug-in. Lossless formats used on sites 3ost:

• .FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) - lossless audio codec. Unlike lossy codecs, FLAC does not remove any information from the audio stream and is suitable for listening to music on high-quality sound equipment, and for archiving audio collection. Audio sources encoded to FLAC are typically reduced to 50–60% of their original size. Though FLAC playback support in portable audio devices and dedicated audio systems is limited compared to formats like MP3. More in detail...

• .APE (Monkey’s Audio) - popular format for encoding digital audio to lossless. Distributed free with open source and a set of software for encoding and playback, as well as plug-ins to popular media players. Monkey's Audio files use the following extensions: .ape for storing audio and .apl for storing metadata. Despite the open source code, Monkey's Audio is not free, because his license imposes significant restrictions on use. More in detail...

• .WV (WavPack) - free lossless audio codec with open source. WavPack also incorporates a unique "hybrid" mode, which offers all the advantages of lossless compression with an additional bonus: instead of creating one file in this mode to create a relatively small file of high (or more accurately referred to when coding) with the loss of quality .wv, which can be played by itself, as well as the file "correction" .wvc, which (in combination with the previous .wv) can fully restore the original. For some users, this means that they will never have to choose between lossless and lossy. More in detail...

Lossy formats:
Lossy audio - audio compressed with the lossy audio codecs, depending on the settings of the codec can be as close in quality to the original and much worse than the original. Audio, compressed lossy codecs cannot be restored to its original quality. The advantage of this compression is that the songs take up much less space on digital media, in contrast to Lossless and uncompressed formats. Only one Lossy format used on sites 3ost:

• .MP3 - licensed file format for storing audio information. Currently MP3 is the most famous and popular of the popular audio formats with losses. The format can be played in virtually all popular operating systems on most portable audio players, and is supported by all modern models, music centers and DVD-players. In MP3 format uses a lossy compression algorithm designed to significantly reduce the amount of data required to playback the recording and playback quality is very faithful to the original (according to most listeners), while music fans talking about major differences. When you create an MP3 with average bitrate of 128 kbps which results in the file whose size is approximately equal to 1/10 of the original file from CD-Audio. MP3-files can be created with high or low bit rate, which affects the quality of result file. The principle of compression is to reduce the accuracy of some parts of the audio stream that are virtually indistinguishable to the ear of most people. More in detail...

From administrator:
At the beginning I published on a site only MP3 compositions corresponding to maximum for this format quality, that is bitrate: CBR / 320 kbps, and to most visitors of the site this quality was been enough. During the year I was searching in the web soundtracks in Lossless quality, convert them to MP3 and published, but one day I realized that Lossless is gradually replacing MP3. Some may disagree with me, saying that MP3 "immortal", and with this statement I also agree, and can confidently say that even on high-quality audio equipment in most cases to distinguish the MP3 from Lossless impossible! Of course, much depends on the composition of audio tracks and the perception each of the individual, but if you one of those people which groundlessly claim, that they can distinguish the MP3 from Lossless, even if will be 1000 tracks, do the following - take at least one Audio CD, convert in MP3 / CBR / 320 kbps and ........

From 18.05.2010 soundtracks on a site will be published only in Lossless, and if a soundtrack will not found in Lossless, will be published high-quality MP3 rip in the usual for 3ost quality: CBR / 320 kbps! Whenever possible, all previously published soundtracks in MP3, will be gradually replaced by Lossless. I accepted such decision because of that fact that having refused publication Lossless today, in the near future I risk to lead a site up a blind alley from which quit will be more difficult, than now!

Note:
Information, used in this article, is partly taken from a site: en.wikipedia.org