FLAC files not playing gapless through USB into nDAC?

FLAC files are natively gapless, so if your are hearing gaps, something (e.g., in your player hardware or software) must be inserting them. Does your player have a gapless setting that is not checked, or a gap value that is not set to zero?  Is there a cross-fade setting turned on?

Also, you could try a different player. I used JRiver MC for a while and it worked just fine.

Hook

Thanks for your response. Yes, I understand FLAC files are by default gapless, so something would appear to be amiss. When you refer to "my player" are you meaning the PC/dbpoweramp or the Naim DAC itself? I guess you mean the PC/dbpoweramp configuration as I didn't think there were any "settings" in the DAC to adjust? I am getting my Naim dealer to test this out with FLAC files through their DAC, so this may help pinpoint the source of the problem. As I said, I can convert them to WAV and play gapless with no problem, but it does rankle somewhat that I cannot get the FLAC files to play gapless through the DAC, as I am sure this should be possible?? Thanks.  

I was refering to your playback software and/or PC hardware. You are correct, the Naim DAC has no settings.

I would think that the easiest test for you would be a trial version of some different playback software.  JRMC, Media Monkey, Foobar, and so on. There are lots of other choices, and those I've tried (back when I owned a Naim DAC) had no issue with gapless FLAC playback.

Could also be a bug. Have you tried posting on the dbpoweramp forum? Mr. Spoon is usually pretty quick to respond.

Hook

I'm surprised that it works with WAV.

I think that what is happening is that the DAC plays the first file and when it gets to the end it selects the next but has to interpret the header which causes a slight lag.

Not likely. Gapless play back, just like ReplayGain, is a metadata marker. The software, not the hardware, needs to be able to interpret that.

Wuth regard to your posting Hook, yes I had already posted a message on the dBpoweramp forum and did get a speedy response from Spoon and a couple of other people. Unfortunately, the response was similar to comments posted here...a surprise that the problem exists given the "gapless/lossless" nature of FLAC? No real solution forthcoming, hence my posting on this forum.

Bananahead - your possible explanation does make sense - I am certainly no PC/IT techi, but it does sound that this could be the issue. But I can certainly confirm that the same files via USB play gapless when converted to WAV...the mystery thickens?

I would certainly welcome any comments Naim have, as surely this is not an unusual...although I agree not typical way in which downloaded music is played through a Naim DAC and Naim system?

Thanks.     

Thanks Hook for your last post through Hoop.la. yesterday. My nDAC is only two years old so I should have the latest firmware release. I was aware of the WAV only USB playback on product launch with the subsequent firmware release making FLAC a playback option. I did wonder whether there was some possible gremlins in the works still, hence my posting. However, it does appear from the lack of other uses comments that this is not an apparent issue (or no one uses USB to play FLAC files!). I will as you suggest liaise with Naim support to see whether they can help. Cheers.    

Hi HardBop -

Hmm...wonder where my post went?  Oh well, am glad you picked it up before it disappeared.

Your reply summarized it well, so thanks for that and, again, apologies for not more carefully reading your original post. Will be interesting to hear what Naim support says.  Best of luck!

Hook

Thanks Hook, no problem. I will let you know when I get a response. Cheers.

I am only aware that the DAC cannot play FLACs gapless.

It was stated in this chat. And after this i am not aware of any new firmware update.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/ch...son-dac-code-author:

3/8/11 4:25 PM by Hjalmar Nilsson

"@Dave 3) The DAC don't currently support gapless playback on FLAC. The reason is two fold, a) I want to keep the same clock frequency of the DSP as the old release to maintain the same audio performance, the faster the DSP runs, the more current it takes and the worse it will sound. Currently it's running at a balanced speed to get both FLAC playback and maintaining the audio performance. b) we don't have huge amount of sdram to prebuffer the compressed data. That puts certain limitations on what we can do when decoding flac. I am trying to optimize it a bit but I can't promice that I can do gapless playback without sacrificing audio quality, sorry."

Thanks Jerry, very enlightening. I am in contact with Naim Customer Support so it will be interesting to see what they have to say regarding the content of your post.

Hi Hook and Jerry, and anyone else interested. I have received a reply from Naim Customer Support, and they have confirmed the content of the post from Hjalmar Nilsson, who was responsible for the development of the nDAC. So, the DAC through USB cannot support gapless playback in FLAC, as sound quality would apparently be compromised. The post appears to date back to 2011, and from this I guess it can be assumed that no further development has taken place to address this. Shame...but as I originally posted, gapless playback can be achieved by conversion to WAV.

I have to say that for a simple chap like myself this is getting far too complicated...time I retrenched, and feel that my immediate upgrade options should revolve around "DRing" my Supercap and XPS, rather than dipping a further toe into the murky waters of audio streaming etc.!!     

For a relatively small investment, you could add a Sonos Connect as a streaming source for your nDAC. You could connect via Toslink, and subscribe to one of the lossless streaming services. It's very easy to set up and use, but you will need a control point like an iPad/Phone to run the Sonos app.

It is quite amazing having easy, instant access to 25M+ tracks at CD quality!

ATB.

Hook

PS - Not that DR'ing your PS's isn't a good idea - it very much is!

Thanks Hook, I will bear in mind your advice...I have the IPad, so that's a start at least! Cheers.