Short answer is because the
flac.exe version 1.3.2 included with MusicBee still works perfectly fine.
The majority of the latest changes are updates to the source code for people who need to compile their own libraries, or address very specific cases that won't affect MusicBee users in any significant way. The same is true for any codec now in wide use - I'm not aware of any recent updates to any codec that makes significant improvements for everyday file conversion tasks.
MusicBee uses the BASS libraries from
www.un4seen.com for decoding audio - specifically
bassflac.dll for FLAC files.
It only uses
libFLAC.dll released by Xiph.org for writing tags to FLAC files, so there is no benefit in updating that.
You can replace the
flac.exe encoder for converting other formats to FLAC if you like.
The release notes do mention some improvements in encoding speed and/or efficiency, so I ran a few comparisons on tracks of varying length. I also included the latest version of FFmpeg which would avoid the need for always updating separate codecs.
Converting WAV files to FLAC, using compression level 8
===================================================================================
TRACK #1 (Instrumental)
Duration: 2 min 56 sec
Encoder FLAC 1.3.2 FLAC 1.4.3 FFmpeg 6.0
Encoding time (sec) 1.73 1.81 (+0.8 ) 1.97
File size (bytes) 20,901,560 20,846,712 (-54,848) 20,931,474
===================================================================================
TRACK #2 (Instrumental)
Duration: 10 min 07 sec
Encoder FLAC 1.3.2 FLAC 1.4.3 FFmpeg 6.0
Encoding time (sec) 10.11 9.57 (-0.54) 9.26
File size (bytes) 102,509,544 100,382,810 (-2,126,734) 100,988,236
===================================================================================
TRACK #3 (Rock)
Track Duration: 23 min 25 sec
Encoder FLAC 1.3.2 FLAC 1.4.3 FFmpeg 6.0
Encoding time (sec) 22.08 19.79 (-2.29) 20.31
File size (bytes) 191,844,015 187,758,779 (-4,085,236) 188,249,082
===================================================================================
TRACK #4 (Classical)
Duration: 19 min 48 sec
Encoder FLAC 1.3.2 FLAC 1.4.3 FFmpeg 6.0
Encoding time (sec) 8.68 7.24 (-1.44) 7.38
File size (bytes) 90,006,813 89,838,940 (-167,873) 90,265,725
Although there are some minor improvements, I wouldn't say it's a compelling reason to upgrade unless you regularly convert entire albums to FLAC from some other format, where it might save you a few seconds and/or megabytes. Any benefits would also be seen when ripping CDs to FLAC files.
A more thorough comparison across many different albums and genres would also give a better indication of average gains. Also, my computer is a few years old - newer architectures may perform quite differently.
Topic: OK to update out of date EXE + DLL FLAC files? (Read 547 times)