Help on converting WAV to FLAC.

Yes your HDX can do that, and further more you should use the HDX to do to ensure the tags etc go over.

Its done from the desktop client.

FYIW your hdx will happily pole your entire network and display all the music it finds, its a great server like that, your nas won't do this.

If you right click on the top of the tree of music files in the DTC, it will give the option to convert the whole library to FLAC. Three days or so later it will be done, with no further intervention. Don't do them one at a time.

We have taken our HDX-SSD out of our system and now feed the NDS from a server running on the NAS. There was no small improvement in sound quality, the HDX seemingly got in the way.  You'll have a lot more control over everything if you do it yourself. I can't recommend dBpoweramp highly enough for ripping, converting formats, stripping out tags and inserting them. It's my Swiss Army Knife. There are many alternatives. I'm sure everything is much of a muchness.

Hi,

It may be because I'm using n-Serve for Mac, and the DTC is in some way different from the Windows version, but I'm not seeing that option.

Just to reiterate my original post though, the WAV files are stored on a NAS, rather than on the HDX's hard drive, having been ripped and saved there by the HDX

Oh dear! 

Dave.

Hi Harry,

The original advice, some months back, was to retain the HDX as a UPnP server to the then newly acquired NDS.

Now, I feel that this is something of a waste, as it's really only seeing day to day use as a means of ripping CD's. (It's got to go anyway, to finance the purchase of a second 555DR today!!!! )

Friends who are further down the streaming road assure me that I'll lose nothing in SQ by adopting such as dbPoweramp, as you suggest..........assuming the beta version for Mac actually works!

The UPnP issue will be taken care of with the arrival of a UPnP enabled NAS, (maybe use the present one as some kind of backup?)

Short term, I just need to figure out the conversion of my existing WAV files to FLAC. 

Dave.

Dave I find Asset is a great UPnP player that can run on a PC, Mac, some consumer NASs and even a Pi.

This player effectively transcodes.

However don't assume a UPnP server sounds the same on all platforms - and that might explain what Harry hears by removing the HDX.

I find the Asset running on the Pi tends to sound pretty favourable and for Redbook sounds favourable to Asset running on a HP PC. I have found Twonky running on a Netgear sounded least favourable.

Simon

We ran an HDX for years Dave. Loved it. Better to our ears than CDX2 and more capable with DAC/555PS than CDS3, again to our ears. When the NDS came along and moved the goal posts another huge distance we figured that the HDX didn't owe us anything and it may as well stay because of it's potential versatility. When it broke down I fired up Minimserver on our QNAP and thought I'd gone mad. But Helen heard it too and we decided there and then not to reintroduce the HDX when repaired. 

I'm not claiming our result will be the same for all or that it can be universally explained, although if you consider what an HDX essentially is, perhaps my subjective finding has some logic behind it.

Hi Harry,

Presumably, you have converted your HDX ripped WAV files to a different format for use with your replacement NAS?

How did you set about this, bearing in mind the fact that my DTC for Mac seems not to offer the solution suggested earlier by Hungryhalibut?

Cheers,

Dave.

Dave, on n-serve for Mac, if you control-click on 'Albums' you get a drop-down list; select Encode to > FLAC.

I haven't actually tried doing it, but I assume this does all albums. If you do the same on the top album in the list, I assume this only does the one album?

Dave. First off, I'm on PCs so some of what I say may not translate.

WAV is my preferred format. Some prefer FLAC, many don't hear a difference, I prefer WAV.  I had about 800 ripped CDs which were in my HDX ripped music store (on NAS). Early on in my streaming days I spent a lot of time listening to files in various formats, at various bit depths and sample rates, played back from HDX internal HDD, USB and NAS.  Unlike WAV versus FALC, I could discern no difference between file locations. 

When I decided to try a NAS based server the navigation in the app looked a bit clunky and ugly but the musical coherence was compelling. So compelling that I was motivated to delete all the proprietary Naim files and tag all my WAVs from scratch. This is where a batch facility really comes to the fore, although every track obviously has unique identifiers, not least its title and place in the running order.

I thought the re tagging process would be tedious. In fact I found it therapeutic. It gave the opportunity to correct errors and put some tags in which would mean something to Minimserver. I feel truly liberated now that the process is over and I have enjoyed it. Just so long as you are not in a desperate hurry.

Lots of ways of doing this. Or converting to other formats. And no harm in it because you never lose anything if you make copies, which dBpoweramp does by default, so that if you convert a FLAC file to a WAV file (as I  do) you end up with two files, one of which is the original. Neat and not unique I'm sure.

For the third time . . . let the HDX convert your wav files to flac.  The HDX's software will do it for you. 

If you let the HDX convert to flac for you, the files will have all of the necessary basic metadata -- album name, artist name, track name and track number.  If you don't, you'll have to do it all, virtually by hand. Very very tedious.

End of story

The wav files stored on your nas need to be part of a naim store, if they are randoms then the hdx wont convert them. they have to be naim rips, MQ folder and all that.

Definitely.  I assume Dave is set up this way as he's been using his HDX to 'rip cd's to his nas.'  But if there are wav files is a Share, not a Store, the HDX can't convert those.

I do agree too with Harry about there being some benefits (or fun, in a bit of a strange way) of going through the library and correcting / updating metadata tags.  All things being equal, having to type / enter track names for thousands of tracks is something I'm happy not to have done. But to organize genres, bring uniformity to album names, etc., going through with Metadatics and cleaning stuff up was worthwhile, and gave me a chance to look over and then listen to some albums that I'd ignored for a long time.

Yes, there is that aspect to it also. Something I enjoyed very much. 

Plenty of ways to skin this one.

Hi,

Not happening, I'm afraid.

Control - click on "Albums" gives one of only two options, "Play" or "Random Play".

Ho Hum.

Dave.

So you don't see this.....?

Hi Chris,

Nope, only the upper two options.

I'll try reinstalling n-Serve, and see if that cures things. 

Thanks,

Dave.

Hi Guys,

Removed n-Serve from MacBook, then downloaded the latest n-Serve via iTunes, and no different to the version previously installed.

Ah Ha! Visit the Naim website, there's a version specifically for Mac, that'll be the one.

Removed newly installed version, downloaded and installed the new one from Naim..............guess what?

Exactly the same, with still no option to convert from WAV to FLAC.

This is beginning to get mighty tedious, life's too short! 

Dave.

For what it's worth:

Media Centre (MC20) from JRiver is an excellent Windows program (maybe also Apple), which allows you to quickly bulk convert from many to many formats, including WAV to FLAC. I use it for ripping/tagging/playing

Thanks Bert,

Unless someone can see what the issue is with n-Serve, I'm now getting fed up with the whole deal.

I'll get a mate over who already uses dbPoweramp, (Windoze version), to see if it's easier to do the bulk conversion that way.

If things don't improve, I'm tempted to surrender, and just keep the HDX after all!!!!

Thanks everyone,

Dave. 

Dave are you running server software 1.7a or 1.7b?  Both of those should give you the option to "Encode to . . . wav or flac" when you right-click on the Albums item as shown.

If you're running older server software, that'd be one good reason you don't see this option.

Bert -- the issue isn't the conversion, it's getting the metadata associated with the flac files.  The wav files he'll be starting with do not have the album name, artist or track title associated with them (as I recall), as it's in a separate .xml file.  If one lets the Naim server software do the conversion, it will pull the metadata from the .xml file and associate it with the flac files as part of the process.  I have a strong feeling that if he just uses JRiver, he'll have a bunch of folders full of flac files that need to be tagged via the process Harry and I referenced above; a bit of a daunting (or fun; in the eyes of the beholder) task.

Dave, why don't you email Naim support, if anyone can explain this mystery, it's them. (Don't tell them it's to enable you to ditch the HDX, though!)  Maybe it's something to do with your NAS, what happens if you rip a CD to the HDX drive and try asking it to convert that?