And once you have the methodology, you don't need the subreddit anymore. You just need a hard drive and a decent pair of headphones.
You can buy FLACs on Qobuz, 7digital, or Bandcamp. You can stream "CD Quality" on Tidal or Apple Music. But the conversation about downloading —specifically, acquiring FLACs for offline archives, rare bootlegs, or avoiding subscription fees—lives almost exclusively in one notoriously ugly, chaotic, and brilliant corner of the internet:
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and archival discussion purposes. Downloading copyrighted music without permission may violate laws in your jurisdiction. Always support artists directly when possible.
This is not a guide to piracy. This is an analysis of the Reddit ecosystem as a cartography tool for lossless audio. To understand the current landscape, you have to understand the corpse of r/riprequests . At its peak, this subreddit was the Library of Alexandria for FLACs. Users would post MEGA links to discographies, SACD rips, and 24-bit vinyl transfers. It was a utopia for data hoarders.