Simple question (I hope!)
Posted by: RoyleBlue on 08 March 2011
Am a PC user, have got a NAS set up and running (2 x 2Tb running in Raid 1) and am going to buy dbpoweramp to rip my collection of some 1500 cd's. This will be streamed wirelessly to (hopefully, funds permitting!) an NDX and controlled via. my iPhone 4 or maybe an iPad later this year.
Question is - I would like to browse everything including artwork etc. but with the best possible sound from the NDX (fingers crossed!) so do I go WAV or Flac?
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by okli
The question is what UPnP server you are using on your NAS / PC to stream to the renderer (NDX). I'm not aware of UPnP server able to read tags from WAV, apart of Naim own servers, so I think you'll be out of luck with WAV on 3rd party server. That's the reason I rip to FLAC - NDX should support this native and I trust Naim did a good job making it sound excellent. But there will be of course people claiming WAV sounds better than FLAC, so I'll suggest you expirement with both formats and make your own decision.
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Hi, first I really would recommend you use wired Ethernet if possible as opposed to wireless. If you really need to go wireless, then I would consider FLAC as it compresses the PCM removing redundant data so the files are smaller, but you may have throughput problems when you go hidef. Before you rip your cd collection I would do some listening tests of your favourite albums listening in both wave and FLAC on your NDX. Be relaxed and have a glass of wine !! , listen to the whole album one at a time, which version feels right and makes your foot tap or grab your emotions, if they both do, go with FLAC.
Simon
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by likesmusic
Many UPnP servers can transcode between formats - from FLAC to WAV for example - so arguably you can decide which format to rip in based on the convenience, robustness and quality of tagging and then stream to the NDX whichever format it prefers. So, first thing to do is check out the transcoding abilities of your proposed UPnP server.
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by RoyleBlue
Thanks chaps. Simon - will see if I can get away with a hole in the celing to get an ethernet cable into my room, then go see Alastair for an extensive demo!
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk
A hole in the ceiling........ I thought I get away with murder, but I don't think I could pull that one off ;-)
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by RoyleBlue
Hence the need for wireless!
Posted on: 08 March 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Well on a serious note assuming your house has conentional timber suspended floors, and your wireless access point/router is on the floor above/below your wireless signal should be very strong. You might want to keep wireless traffic to a minimum on your NDX wireless network, and set up a separate wireless network for general computer use in your house. Because of the nature of WiFi the more devices you have on the same wireless network the more you will have potential throughput issues even if a good signal strength (it's a single collision domain).
Simon
