Yes – with caveats.
If you understand that you are pursuing the best possible lossy-to-lossless preservation, not true studio master quality, then the "yt flac best" workflow is absolutely worth it.
You gain:
You lose:
You cannot "record" the audio in real-time (that introduces DAC noise). You must download the adaptive bitrate stream. yt flac best
Strictly speaking, you cannot get "true" FLAC from YouTube because YouTube does not stream FLAC. YouTube compresses all audio using lossy codecs (AAC, Opus, or MP4a). FLAC is a container. If you convert a 128kbps YouTube AAC file to FLAC, you don’t get CD quality; you get a bloated, lossy file in a lossless wrapper.
However, when audiophiles search for "yt flac best," they actually mean: "How do I get the highest possible, bit-perfect extraction from YouTube to convert into a FLAC container without further generational loss?" Yes – with caveats
You cannot get true FLAC (CD-quality lossless) audio from YouTube. YouTube streams audio at a maximum of 256 kbps AAC (Premium) or 128-160 kbps OPUS (Free). FLAC requires ~700–1,000+ kbps.
When people search this, they actually want the "best possible quality" from YouTube, which is OPUS 160 kbps (free users) or AAC 256 kbps (Premium). You lose: You cannot "record" the audio in