Tagged WAV files

Posted by: SKDriver on 03 May 2011

Hi Guys,

 

I have the NDX on order, and I am in the process of looking at a NAS.  So far I have ripped half my CDs to FLAC on a laptop using DBPoweramp and will transfer them to the NAS as soon as I get it (streaming to the NDX from the laptop using Asset in the meantime).

 

I have read various posts about WAV sounding better than FLAC, and I will of course listen and decide for myself (not sure that my Dynaudios are THAT resolving!), but if I convert all my FLACs to WAV (using DBPoweramp converter) before I save them to the NAS, will they keep their Tags correctly, and will the artwork/tags display correctly on N-Stream?

 

Thanks

 

 

Posted on: 03 May 2011 by Stubby

I believe that the answer is that it depends! It depends on what uPNP server software you use. dBPoweramp will produce tagged WAV files, however you would then need to use Asset (it's stablemate) to serve up the files to the NDX. Asset will understand the tags in these WAV files and hey presto you're sorted. If you don't want a separate laptop in the chain and only want to have the NAS feeding the NDX direct then I believe you will have to buy a NAS with a Windows Home Server operating system as you can install Asset onto WHS NAS's only.

 

All in all most people suggest sticking with FLAC files for the ease of use and greater options available to you. For what it's worth I ignored all of this advice and have ripped all of my CD's as WAV's using dBPoweramp. I have a WHS NAS and just need to decide on the player I'm going to use - be it NDX or Linn DS.

 

Posted on: 03 May 2011 by Tog

Have listened to wav v flac and prefer flac. I suspect I may even prefer the sound to aiff but that is unthinkable. I have no idea why but there you go.

 

Like many things in life it is a personal choice.

 

Tog

Posted on: 03 May 2011 by SKDriver
Thanks Stubby Probably not going the WHS route. Want to keep it simple and low energy/noise. I guess it will be FLACs on a QNAP then!
Posted on: 03 May 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Hi, Stubby is spot on, dBpoweramp uses the extensible WAV format with the list chunks holing metadata and a private chunk called id3 containing metadata. I have found many programs ignore these chunks however and therefore ignore the metadata. The AIFF (audio interchange file format) is an uncompressed file format that supports as standard meta data and album art and so might be a good option to use. I don't know however whether Naim reads these attributes from AIFF. I have started to use AIFF as my file encoding choice. I would prefer FLAC but alas the processing overhead on most renderers I have tried has affected the audio replay quality.

Simon



Posted on: 03 May 2011 by Stubby

Thanks for the affirmation Simon! I am still getting to grips with all of the streaming technology, it's a relief to know that I have understood things correctly and not passing on incorrect advice in error. I'm slightly worried that Tog prefers FLACs, but I'm nevertheless happy with my current direction.

 

Stuart

Posted on: 03 May 2011 by Mike Smiff

dbpoweramp now has an update, you can rip or convert compressed flac to uncompressed flac, it may be best of both worlds if you find wav better than flac, ie. flac metadata and as good as wav sound.

Posted on: 03 May 2011 by Tog
I wouldn't worry too much ... Both Linn and B&W recommend flac but it can be easily decompressed into aiff. In any case I keep a duplicate library in aiff anyway. I try not to get to obsessive about the flac v wav issue as even if there is a difference between them it is pretty tiny. Not advice, just opinion based on a long time messing with CA.





XLD will also rip to uncompressed flac.



Tog