english  |  russian 
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 are some devices that support the FLAC format. For the ones we have hands-on experience with, there is a linked review (see all reviews). Manufacturers, if you would like your product reviewed here, please contact us.

Home stereo:
Squeezebox
(our review)
Transporter
(our review)
Sonos
(our review)
Escient Hifidelio Olive
Arcus DAR300 Blackbird McIntosh MS300
Helios X5000 Netgear EVA8000 ReQuest
MediaREADY MC Zensonic Z500 Ziova
Sooloos HD MediaBox TViX 4/5000 Series

Other home stereo:

Car stereo:
Portable/Handheld:
Cowon iAUDIO i-Station mini DX Iwod G10
KNC HR-2800 Meizu M6 Miniplayer Onda VX737
Rio Karma Teclast TL-29 TrekStor Vibez
Bluedot BMP-1430

Other Portable/Handheld:

Other:
  • Numark's DJ equipment like the HDX and CDX turntables with integrated hard drive and CD player, and the HDMIX mixer
  • The Pico CD/DVD Duplicator
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.

Sonos: A very slick networked audio system. Each ZonePlayer connects to an amplifier or speakers, accessing music over the network. ZonePlayers are controlled by a wireless remote with color LCD and clickwheel; they can network together wired or wireless and play in sync or independently. FLAC support is excellent; nearly the full subset (i.e. mono and stereo files, sample rates from 16kHz-48kHz, 16-bits per sample) including all standard encoding modes are supported. Also supported: gapless playback, FLAC tags, and ReplayGain.

Squeezebox: A fantastic networked audio player from Slim Devices with analog and digital outputs for connecting to an amplifier/receiver. Has an easy-to-read vacuum fluorescent display, wired or wireless networking, 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 (i.e. mono and stereo files, sample rates from 8kHz-48kHz, 16- and 24-bits per sample) including all standard encoding modes are supported. Also supported: gapless playback, FLAC tags, ReplayGain, 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).

Transporter: Top-of-the-line networked audio player from Slim Devices. Offers all the features of the Squeezebox (see just above), but loaded with pro-grade connectors (including balanced analog outputs and optical/coax/BNC/XLR digital ins and outs), top-end components, and a larger display. FLAC support is also excellent; all standard FLAC encoding modes and tags are supported, as are gapless playback, ReplayGain, cuesheets ... everything the Squeezebox supports, plus support for sample rates up to 96kHz.

Compression
modes
ChannelsSample
rates
Sample
resolution
GaplessFLAC tagsCover artReplayGainCuesheets
Sonos0-8stereo,mono16kHz-48kHz16bpsYYNYN
Squeezebox0-8stereo,mono8kHz-48kHz16bps, 24bpsYYNYY (external)
Transporter0-8stereo,mono8kHz-96kHz16bps, 24bpsYYNYY (external)

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: