Which hi-rez format?

Posted by: Chris Bell on 06 February 2013

As a new NDS owner I am exploring the world of hi-rez downloads.  There are multiple codec options available for download.  Example: Naim offers WAV, ALAC, and FLAC. Which one is best?

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by james n

Chris - you can convert between any of them easily enough. naim recommend wav so if your server can handle wav then I'd take that option.

 

James

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by Dungassin

As one of those who can't hear any significant differene between FLAC and WAV, I suggest you make recordings of the same piece(s) in WAV and the lossless compressed format of your choice and make your own mind up.  Even if you can hear a difference, some servers (e.g. Asset) can do the transcoding for you so that your NDS will report WAV rather than FLAC.

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by Bart

I have been purchasing my hi res downloads in flac format, as they are so much easier to tag.

 

I can transcode from flac to wav if I so desire, and not lose the benefits of flac's tagging.

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by glevethan

Chris

 

The information posted above is correct: Naim recommend WAV - many cannot tell the difference between WAV and FLAC - there are similar discussions on the Linn forum (I use a KDS) on WAV vs. FLAC  (FLAC seems to be the most common format used with KDS owners) - and FLAC is easier to tag.  FLAC files are also smaller however with the price of storage this is no longer an issue.

 

With that said which UPnP server are you using?  Asset (by Mr. Spoon of DBPoweramp fame) allows for on the fly transcoding from FLAC to WAV.  I (as well as many KDS users) use MinimServer.  This is a state of the art UPnP program written by a Linn forum member.  It is available for Windows, Mac and several flavors of NAS's (I run a Mac environment and am eternally in debt to Simon for writing a Mac version of MinimServer).  A new feature of MinimServer now allows transcoding from FLAC to WAV.  As such it is easy to play both and determine which you prefer.

 

Regardless of which format you choose they are all easily convertible from one to the other.

 

Gregg

 

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by Chris Bell

Thanks for the info everyone.  Gregg, I am using a Uniti Serve SSD with an Apple Time Capsule drive.  I have no wish to transcode files, so I want to know what codec to best.  Sounds like WAV.   

 

One annoyance I am encountering is with album art.  I purchased a hi-rez WAV album from the Naim Label site yesterday and the album art does not display.  I would have though Naim figured that part out.  

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by Bart
Originally Posted by Chris Bell:

Thanks for the info everyone.  Gregg, I am using a Uniti Serve SSD with an Apple Time Capsule drive.  I have no wish to transcode files, so I want to know what codec to best.  Sounds like WAV.   

 

One annoyance I am encountering is with album art.  I purchased a hi-rez WAV album from the Naim Label site yesterday and the album art does not display.  I would have though Naim figured that part out.  

I'm not so sure about using a Time Capsule with the uServe -- do you have that sorted out?

 

Wav does not support embedded album art (as implemented by Naim).  You just need to get the folder arranged properly, with the album art named folder.jpg and in the same folder as the .wav files.  That's all it takes, and the uServe will serve it up just fine

Posted on: 06 February 2013 by Chris Bell

Time Capsule is solid.  Former Nana tech David Dever had an extensive set up guide for making it work with the Uniti Serve.  2TB server class drive and built in switch.