Converting FLAC to WAV

Posted by: Foxman50 on 16 October 2012

Hi all

 

I have used dbpoweramp to rip my CD's to FLAC. I believe i can batch convert these to WAV within dbpoweramp, hope thats correct. My question is though, would this create the same quality WAV file as if i had ripped the CD directly to WAV.

 

And while im on is there anyway to revert my ND5SX back to firmware 3.15 or 3.13 or whatever it was before 3.16. If Naim had made it clear they were going to change the sound of the unit then i doubt i would have updated it. After all whats the point tuning your system to the way you like it, only to have a third party alter it???

Posted on: 16 October 2012 by Foxman50

OK confused.com ive just ripped an album to WAV and the tracks have come out slightly smaller than the FLAC version. I thought WAV was uncompressed and hence should be a larger file size than the FLAC equivalent. Am i missing something???

Posted on: 16 October 2012 by rich46

was flac set to no compression

Posted on: 16 October 2012 by McGhie
Hi Foxman I guess you're using uncompressed FLAC, which is ever so slightly bigger than Wav. If you'd used compression originally (dBp offers around ten levels of compression plus uncomoressed) then you'd have smaller FLAC files than Wav files. dBp will batch convert every file in a folder if you want it to, so you can point it at the root folder of your FLAC files (assuming they all live in sub-folders beneath a single folder) and it'll convert the lot. There's an option to have dBp compare the files before and after conversion to check that the music data is unchanged (not sure if it does it FLAC to Wav but it certainly does v.v.) You should not lose anything in the conversion (theoretically you can convert between lossless formats any number of times without losing any audio data). Be sure to set a target folder for your Wav that differs from where the FLAC that you're converting from live. If you have a multi-core processor then dBp can convert multiple files in parallel too, speeding the whole thing up. If you rerun the streamer update then you may have the option if picking an older version of the firmware if you want to roll back. I'm sure that when I upgraded there was a choice of versions (as well as regions). Cheers Ian
Posted on: 16 October 2012 by Peter_RN

Hi Foxman

 

Firstly, you cannot revert your Naim unit to an earlier firmware version yourself. I don’t know if it can be done by a dealer, you could ask, but Naim made this very clear when they posted the update.

 

Yes, you can convert your files using dbpoweramp to wav without any loss of quality, it is also true that you can end up with slightly smaller files; I like you was expecting larger files. As you have ripped a file to wav you can easily compare by also converting your flac version, this should convince you that converting is as good as re-ripping.

 

Regards

Peter

Posted on: 16 October 2012 by Foxman50

Rich - yes i have ripped with no compression, just presumed that would be the best option for sound quality.

 

Ian - it just threw me as i was expecting larger files. Had a play with the batch converter and works well. Since the firmware update i prefer the sound of WAV's as they seem to be slightly smoother.

 

Peter -  yes they did, but i don't recall seeing that the update will change the sound of the unit. Whats the point buying cables and accessories to get the sound you want if they provide an update that changes it all. Didn't think of that so will try and convert a track as well as ripping it to WAV and compare.

 

Many thanks all, had a terrible thought i may have to re rip everything. Nooooooooooooooo!!

Posted on: 16 October 2012 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Foxman, if your rips are in FLAC, leave them as such, if you want to send them as WAV when using UPNP let your upnp server transcode on the fly to WAV - kind of one of the functions of a upnp server.. Asset made by the same people who write dBpoweramp does this very very well. You shouldn't need to re rip unless your rips were faulty in the first place ie they were not lossless.

Simon

 

Posted on: 16 October 2012 by Foxman50

Hi Simon

 

Nothing wrong with my rips to flac, well as far as i know, as they were ripped in lossless with zero compression. But since the firmware update it doesnt sound as, rubbish word, nice.

 

wav does sound slightly better but still not as it was. Been reading more tonight and maybe i need to try a PSU out.

 

see this is what they do, they grab you then lead you ddown the path of add ons and upgrades. The road to hell, but fall for it every time

Posted on: 17 October 2012 by Foxman50

Well i went for a dem of an XP5xs and an XPS2 for the ND5xs, who comes up with these names, and my god what a difference.

 

Settled on the XPS2, although there was a slight increase in sound quality over the XP5xs, i went for this as it may be better if i upgrade the ND5 at some point. Oh and many thanks to the guys at TTA, very friendly and helpfull.

 

Back is the sound i had been missing since the firmware update and a whole lot more to boot. Im loving it as the golden arches would say.

 

However this got me thinking on my original post. If i have the same track ripped in both lossless uncompressed flac and wav, with the file sizes being of similar size, why can i hear a difference between them. Its quite clear, the flac is definitely more edgy. The wav certainly sounds more natural. But why??

Posted on: 17 October 2012 by McGhie
The consensus seems to be that if there is a difference it's down to the different processing required to unpack the FLAC vs the Wav within the network player (the latter requiring less of the network player. Hence Simon's suggestion to use the UPnP server to transcode to Wav on the fly (i.e. it has nothing to do with the data stored in the FLAC).
Posted on: 17 October 2012 by Bart
Originally Posted by Foxman50:

 

 However this got me thinking on my original post. If i have the same track ripped in both lossless uncompressed flac and wav, with the file sizes being of similar size, why can i hear a difference between them. Its quite clear, the flac is definitely more edgy. The wav certainly sounds more natural. But why??

Ahh Foxman one of the questions that come up all the time here.  Some people say they hear no difference, and some say they do.  Go with what sounds best to you! If they sound the same, flac is generally easier to handle (tags).

Posted on: 18 October 2012 by Foxman50

Think ill have a go today with setting the UPNP to transcode see how that compares with a straight wav file. Is this generally identical to a straight wav file, in sound quality i mean. My system is very modest compared with most of you guys on here so im surprised i hear a difference. Then again maybe thats the issue my system isnt up to the job of making flac and wav sound as they should.