WAV or FLAC Lossless? And tags etc etc....

Posted by: -goat- on 28 October 2011

Hi all. I think I remember some talk on here a while back about dbPoweramp now supporting lossless FLAC. FLAC is always lossless though is it not? My understanding is as follows: FLAC is lossless. It's a compression which is reversed when the FLAC file is played, as opposed to MP3 which is a compression and also a selective crop of some sort (drops out data containing inaudible frequencies). WAV doesn't require the same decompression the FLAC does when played and usually this gives an advantage in terms of sound quality over FLAC because the hardware playing the file is freed of this process. WAV does not usually support tags. FLAC supports tags. 

 

Is this all correct? I am asking because I am hoping to someday acquire an ND5/NDX and I also have the following questions:

 

1. If my WAV files are encoded with dbPoweramp will the NDX and Upnp be able to read the tags just like they would with MP3 or FLAC? I have some WAV files that were encoded with XLD, will these also have some sort of tags imbedded or will I need to fire them through dbPoweramp to achieve this? If I have the right sort of Upnp software installed, will the tagged WAVs be essentially the same from a functionality point of view to FLACs?

 

2. Does dbPoweramp support an uncompressed FLAC format? And if so, is this going to sound the same as a comparable WAV file? Is this essentially a WAV file in FLAC guise? A WAV with the tagging advantages of FLAC?

 

3. This one isn't really so important. If the files on my NAS drive, FLAC, tagged Wav or whatever, are tagged properly can you browse using n-Stream by artist or album like you can on an iPod or iPhone? Or do you browse using the folder structure on the NAS?

 

Sorry to ask so many questions at once! I'm sure much of this has been covered before. I did a quick search but couldn't see any threads on this topic. Appreciate any help!

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by Dungassin

Simon,  for the moment ignoring the bit about Naim transcoding, surely if Asset is transcoding, then whther the original file is FLAC or WAV shouldn't matter?

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Dungassin, correct, well for my ears anyway. I transcode my FLACs to WAV ussing Asset and as far as the Naim is concerned they are all WAV files. It works perfectly for me.

Simon

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by rich46

hi simon how/were do i transcode to wav   , i use ripnas/dbpower thanks

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by Nagoya

Go into the configuration menu on Asset UPnP, select advanced and look for Audio Format Streaming. Then select the formats you want to transcode. Thanks!

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Hi Rich, does your set up use Asset? Well in Asset in the advanced settings you can see all the file types supported, with a drop down for each one,simply select FLAC and select transcode to WAV in the drop down.

Simon

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by rich46

thanks guys .  will give it a run .  hows suffolk is it still damp adnams long weekend soon. 

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by Julian H

Simon / Nagoya..., THANKYOU!

 

All WAV. Phew

Posted on: 15 July 2012 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Hi Rich, very damp.. Not sure which beer festival you might be referring to?? However the big Ipswich festival is usually around September.. But Adnams is  one of my faves, and the village local now has Adnams Bitter and Aspalls on draught - with the Adnams in cask ... Heaven.

Simon