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links
The links page is the place for all things FLAC. The hardware section lists the home stereo, car stereo, and portable devices that support the FLAC format. The music section has links to artists, labels, and legal trading/sharing sites that offer works encoded in FLAC. The software section is a loosely categorized list of open-source software that supports the FLAC format. Some of the most popular (some non-free) software can be found on the download page in the extras section.

hardware
Below is a list of devices that support the FLAC format. So far we only have experience with the Squeezebox2 and Rio Reciever; see reviews below. Manufacturers, if you would like your product reviewed here, feel free to send a unit.

Home stereo: Car stereo: Portable/Handheld: Reviews:

The main purpose of these reviews is to give an idea of how well particular devices support FLAC. Other subjective comments here are based on our general impressions and are not meant to be thorough or authoritative. We only review devices we have tested directly ourselves.

Rio Reciever: This little device is a hacker's dream. It plays audio over a network (Ethernet or HPNA) so it requires a PC to serve audio files. There are several open source clients available and since it boots its Linux distro over NFS you can write your own client. They're not made anymore but you can still find them on ebay. The main downsides: 1) small, hard-to-read LCD display; 2) FLAC support is only in third-party clients which take some work to set up.

Squeezebox2: A fantastic networked audio player. Has an excellent, easy-to-read vacuum fluorescent display, wired or wireless networking, optical and coax digital outs and analog out, a reputation for very high audio quality, multi-room synchronization, and a bunch of other features. The server-side software, SlimServer, is open-source, runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc. and has an active community. FLAC support is excellent; nearly the full subset (e.g. sample rates up to 48kHz, 16- and 24-bits per sample) including all standard encoding modes are supported. Also supported are FLAC tags, automatic transcoding on the server of many audio formats to FLAC for transmission to the box, and external cuesheet support (internal cuesheet support is in the works).

music
Several labels and artists have adopted FLAC as a distribution format for their works, offering them for sale or free download online. And many online trading communities that share legal, band-sanctioned recordings of live shows distribute them in FLAC format. These are just some of them.

Artists Labels and Stores Venues: Communities:

software
A large and growing list of software supports the FLAC format. This list is a sample of open-source software supporting FLAC. Some of the most popular non-free software can be found on the download page in the extras section.

Audio encoders/decoders/converters/taggers: Audio editors: Audio players/servers: CD ripping/burning: Organizers: Plugins, developer tools and libraries: Scientific, Audio Analysis: