Goodbye WAV, hello FLAC

Posted by: hungryhalibut on 20 February 2014

Since getting my UnitiServe last year, I have been ripping CDs in WAV. With over 2,000 CDs, the Serve was filling up fast, and I have no desire for extra music stores. I was also concerned over some of the tales about Naim streamers struggling to cope with UnitiServe WAV rips if they are streamed direct from a NAS. I had visions of the Serve conking out and my NAS backup being unplayable, or at best a bit of a dog's breakfast.

 

Anyway.... I set the Serve to convert all the files to FLAC; a process that took about four days. I tried streaming them in FLAC, but the sound was a bit weedy compared to the WAV versions. So the Serve is now set to transcode to WAV on playback, and to my ears at least, I can't tell the difference between WAV rips and FLACs transcoded to WAV.

 

Once everything was converted, I simply turned on the NAS, ran a differential backup and all the WAVs were magically replaced by FLACs. And now, the file library is only 0.6TB, compared to the 1.4TB that is was previously.

 

The Serve now rips as FLAC - incidentally it actually rips in WAV, and then converts to FLAC. The whole thing has worked faultlessly, apart from about ten CDs that won't convert, due to metadata issues that I can't identify.

 

I'd suggest to anyone with a UnitiServe that is filling up that they try converting to FLAC, and then transcoding back. You can try just one album and see what you think before committing yourself. Just go into the album list in the DTC, right click on the one you want, and select convert to FLAC. Easy peasy.

Posted on: 20 February 2014 by GraemeH
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:
Originally Posted by mikapoh:

I didn't know when Simon has become a professor in audio. 

Now there is a thought, perhaps time for a career change..... 

Care is needed when choosing the title of a chair.  I know of at least one in the 1980's who chose 'Professor of Word Processing'.

 

G

Posted on: 20 February 2014 by Tog

Minimserver, when set to transcode to wav24 from flac does seem to sound better. However, flac into Dac V1 via USB sounds better still to my ears.

 

Tog

Posted on: 20 February 2014 by hungryhalibut
Originally Posted by GraemeH:
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:

Scott, in my experience (and seemingly of the experiences of several others on this forum) then yes.

It does cost nothing to transcode, assuming your UPnP server supports it, so if it makes a positive difference then great... If not you can switch transcoding back off.

Simon

I've footered about with 'My Book Live' but cannot fathom this 'transcoding' lark at all.

 

hmmmm...

 

G

That's because the MBL is a POC. A decent NAS is WYN.

 

 

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Or a descent UPnP server separate from your NASes. I have found it best to separate storage from apps such as a UPnP server. This way I have more freedom to use a fully capable UPnP server that delivers the audio media reliably for me. After all this is a cortical part of the audio replay flow when streaming...

Simon

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by trickydickie

HH

 

You've definitely done the right thing doing this.

 

The one thing that would make me nervous in getting a US would be what do do if it went wrong or required an upgrade/service back at the factory. Your solution with a mirror of the FLACs on a NAS drive mitigates this completely.

 

Also in time if you want to add other types of players (e.g. Sonos) you will have a library that conforms to a standard which will make the experience painless.

 

Richard

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by GraemeH
Originally Posted by Hungryhalibut:
Originally Posted by GraemeH:
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:

Scott, in my experience (and seemingly of the experiences of several others on this forum) then yes.

It does cost nothing to transcode, assuming your UPnP server supports it, so if it makes a positive difference then great... If not you can switch transcoding back off.

Simon

I've footered about with 'My Book Live' but cannot fathom this 'transcoding' lark at all.

 

hmmmm...

 

G

That's because the MBL is a POC. A decent NAS is WYN.

 

 

In what way is it cr&p Nigel? Can it not perform 'transcoding'?

 

G

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by rupert
Originally Posted by Hungryhalibut:

Since getting my UnitiServe last year, I have been ripping CDs in WAV. With over 2,000 CDs, the Serve was filling up fast, and I have no desire for extra music stores. I was also concerned over some of the tales about Naim streamers struggling to cope with UnitiServe WAV rips if they are streamed direct from a NAS. I had visions of the Serve conking out and my NAS backup being unplayable, or at best a bit of a dog's breakfast.

 

Anyway.... I set the Serve to convert all the files to FLAC; a process that took about four days. I tried streaming them in FLAC, but the sound was a bit weedy compared to the WAV versions. So the Serve is now set to transcode to WAV on playback, and to my ears at least, I can't tell the difference between WAV rips and FLACs transcoded to WAV.

 

Once everything was converted, I simply turned on the NAS, ran a differential backup and all the WAVs were magically replaced by FLACs. And now, the file library is only 0.6TB, compared to the 1.4TB that is was previously.

 

The Serve now rips as FLAC - incidentally it actually rips in WAV, and then converts to FLAC. The whole thing has worked faultlessly, apart from about ten CDs that won't convert, due to metadata issues that I can't identify.

 

I'd suggest to anyone with a UnitiServe that is filling up that they try converting to FLAC, and then transcoding back. You can try just one album and see what you think before committing yourself. Just go into the album list in the DTC, right click on the one you want, and select convert to FLAC. Easy peasy.

 

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by R.K

Playing about with transcribing to WAV from FLAC but is there a way to stop hi-res FLAC being downsampled to 44.1 ie to leave these files in their native format.

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by rupert

Hi why use a unserve I also use a cyrus streamer straight from cd to PC to nas drive ,As they recommend with flac I get a thumb nail picture sounds no different my naim works just the same,The more gadgets the have between you and the music the duller it will sound ,regards

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by Dozey

Why a Unitiserve? If you don't have a NAS already or a ripping solution it is the easiest and quickest way to get started.

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by Solid Air

@Scoot and @GraemeH

 

I believe that Twonky doesn't support transcoding. I used to use Twonky on a WD MBL and found it unreliable, so I changed to a Synology NAS running Minimserver. Now I transcode FLAC to Wav (in fact Wav24 presently) and it makes a noticeable improvement even with a Qute.

 

The WD MBL now operates as a automated backup for our various computers, a task for which it seems better suited.

 

Alex

 

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by DrMark
Originally Posted by Jan-Erik Nordoen:
Hey, that's my line

That's right J-E; I forgot about your former Bill the Cat avatar!

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by Matteo

Flac uncompressed have the same size of Wav

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by hungryhalibut
Originally Posted by R.K:

Playing about with transcribing to WAV from FLAC but is there a way to stop hi-res FLAC being downsampled to 44.1 ie to leave these files in their native format.

There is certainly a way with the UnitiServe. Just set the transcoding option to 'decode' and the native resolution is retained. The 44.1Khz WAV will convert everything to 44.1, so avoid that one.

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by hungryhalibut
Originally Posted by Dozey:

Why a Unitiserve? If you don't have a NAS already or a ripping solution it is the easiest and quickest way to get started.

It sounds better too. If all the music is on the Serve, and the NAS is just for backup, there is nothing extra in the chain. You also get to use nStream, which is a really neat way of sorting out the library, changing cover art etc.

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by Fretfan
Originally Posted by Solid Air:

@Scoot and @GraemeH

 

I believe that Twonky doesn't support transcoding. I used to use Twonky on a WD MBL and found it unreliable, so I changed to a Synology NAS running Minimserver. Now I transcode FLAC to Wav (in fact Wav24 presently) and it makes a noticeable improvement even with a Qute.

 

The WD MBL now operates as a automated backup for our various computers, a task for which it seems better suited.

 

Alex

 


You can get Twonky to transcode to WAV, on a MBL, but it's not straight forward...

 

you need to access the MBL using Putty.  you can then edit the file...

 

flac-wav.desc in the directory /usr/local/twonkymedia-5/cgi-bin

 

and change the file to look like this..

 

<code># transcode audio
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: flac --silent --decode $infile -o $outfile
# capabilities
from=audio/x-flac
to=audio/x-wav
synchronous
priority=idle</code>


If you are not sure what 'putty' is, then don't attempt this !!

 

more info here ...

 

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/ssh-enable

 

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com...ook-live-flac-decode

Posted on: 21 February 2014 by GraemeH
Originally Posted by Solid Air:

@Scoot and @GraemeH

 

I believe that Twonky doesn't support transcoding. I used to use Twonky on a WD MBL and found it unreliable, so I changed to a Synology NAS running Minimserver. Now I transcode FLAC to Wav (in fact Wav24 presently) and it makes a noticeable improvement even with a Qute.

 

The WD MBL now operates as a automated backup for our various computers, a task for which it seems better suited.

 

Alex

 

Thanks.  Good to know.

 

I'm not fussed as FLAC's through the ND5XS to NDAC/555PS sound better than the WAV's through HDX did to same.

 

FLAC-ing happy I am.

 

G