Audio Format

WAV.

.WAV

I stand corrected!!

WAV here. I think FLAC can tend to sound a bit flat through my system but it's a minor thing. Storage is cheap so I just avoid the doubt and concentrate on the musical enjoyment.

Music stored in FLAC and transcoded to WAV when played - best of both worlds!

ALAC (more space). Music stored on an external drive via a Mac Mini. Music via uPnP, Spotify via Mini (wired). 

Thanks for your reply's...I assume you mean WAV lossless, does WAV have tags? 

I use FLAC on a Vortexbox appliance through a SBT and the SN's DAC.

What do you think of Apple Lossless? ...as I have all my CD's saved on to my iPod in Apple Lossless? Now I have a SuperUniti will I need to save to a higher res? How do I save to  Naim DAC, what software do I need to save to it?

Only FLAC for me

.flac here, too.

If it is lossless it is at the same resolution as the source material. Assuming you have ripped from CD, you would need download material at a higher resolution in the format of your choice. 

Lossless is lossless. I don't have a problem with ALAC but some would say that some formats are better quality than others.

You cannot save to the DAC. It has no hard drive. It is a Digital to Analogue Converter.

Neil

Before I had a streamer the music on my iPod 160Gb Classic was ripped in 256 kbps AAC. When I started streaming, after a great deal of research, I decided FLAC would be the best (higher resolution) format. However, the downside was I was having to maintain two librarys.

The iPod 160Gb Classic can store something in the region of 500+ CDs in Apple Lossless (ALAC) so I decided that was the way to go and then I would only have to maintain one library. Also, listening on the iPod in ALAC is a definite bonus.

Before converting the whole library I compared tracks ripped in both FLAC and ALAC, using dbpoweramp, but I couldn't hear any appreciable difference between the formats.

So from my experience stick with your ALAC files. I'm sure they'll sound just great on your SuperUniti.

Hope this helps.

Note: I am assuming your files are stored on your PC or HD and you will have an ethernet connection (hard-wired (preferred) or Powerline) to the SuperUniti.

Thanks Dave!

quote:

Note: I am assuming your files are stored on your PC or HD and you will have an ethernet connection (hard-wired (preferred) or Powerline) to the SuperUniti

The SuperUniti is attached via Ethernet to my broadband for the internet radio (hardwired) and all my ALAC files are on my iPod Touch which I plug into the USB port on the front of the SuperUniti...why? 

Flac for me. Wav's doesn't have any tag feature, which, for me, is the reason why I won't use them.

I'm hoping someone can explain I looked at the properties of some of my tunes  saved in Apple Lossless and I noticed that the bit rates are different form tune to tune why is this...having said that some are above 1000 kbps !

Apple Lossless (ALAC) uses variable bit rate (VBR) encoding hence the different bit rates. Variable rate encoding is inherent in lossless compression schemes such as ALAC and FLAC.

Dave did you read my other post...I answered the question you asked me?

OK you are using your iPod Touch as the storage device and connecting it via USB to the SuperUniti.

Are your ALAC files also stored, or backed-up, on a PC or HD? For long term ease-of-use I would have thought it better to then stream your files from the PC or HD which would be permanently connected to your ethernet network. What I'm saying is you will then need an ethernet connection between the external storage device and the SuperUniti.

I have two HD's on my PC, one for Windows & Apps C: drive and the other as a back up D: drive (not just for ALAC files though) and yes as you said I save all my CD's stored to the D: drive as a back up...so in affect I have a double back up, as all my ALAC's are also on my iPod too, do you think I should get a NAS as well or instead of my iPod? Hope that made sense