Quincy Jones famously said, "Check your ego at the door," when recording. His meticulous attention to detail meant that every frequency was intentionally placed. Standard streaming services often use "loudness normalization," which flattens the peaks of the music. A dedicated FLAC rip from a high-quality CD source preserves the original intent of the engineers, allowing the listener to hear the album exactly as Jones and engineer Bruce Swedien heard it behind the mixing desk. Conclusion
The Dude is not public domain. Stay away from random “free FLAC” blogs – those are where the “up extra quality” warez scene releases lurk, often infected or incomplete.
For the serious listener, “extra quality” should mean and a checksum (like a .ffp or .st5 file). Without that, “FLAC” alone guarantees nothing.
Released just before Jones produced Michael Jackson's Thriller , The Dude served as a blueprint for 80s pop perfection. Music - Review of Quincy Jones - The Dude - BBC
