the basics

Adam Zielinski posted:

If there is an option ALWAYS go for uncompressed, especially with such an abundand storage.

NAIM apparently claim that the additionl computational load on the processor, caused by decoding FLAC or other compressed files, may translate into an additional system noise and degrade sound quality.

Really interesting, thank you. I had no idea that it mattered either way.

Let me ask you this then..

If my music is already in FLAC format (ripped from the source using EAC) is it simply a matter of extracting the FLAC file to WAV?

In my case I used FLAC FRONTEND to extract flac to wav.

Does if matter that the file was compressed originally in Flac?  Can an originally WAV file go to flac file THEN go back 100% to wav without losing anything? Or is it better to convert to WAV from the beginning for the best sound then if you need to convert to flac.  

If the FLAC file has meta data-I assume that metadata will also be embedded in the WAV file, right?

If you rip to FLAC at the dbpoweramp standard compression (5) and then set the server to transcode to WAV, it will sound no different to playing uncompressed WAV rips. The only difference is that the files are half the size and metadata is miles easier to handle. Bear in mind that the Synology media server cannot transcode and do gapless properly, whereas minim and asset can. Also bear in mind that 24bit FLAC files are already about 1GB, and the WAV versions are total monsters. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

If you rip to FLAC at the dbpoweramp standard compression (5) and then set the server to transcode to WAV, it will sound no different to playing uncompressed WAV rips. The only difference is that the files are half the size and metadata is miles easier to handle. Bear in mind that the Synology media server cannot transcode and do gapless properly, whereas minim and asset can. Also bear in mind that 24bit FLAC files are already about 1GB, and the WAV versions are total monsters. 

That's good to hear.  I was hoping that flac & wav sound the same.  I'll be sure to use dbpoweramp in the future just to be sure.

With an all new setup I would strongly recommend that you rip, tag, store and play a small number of albums and make sure you're happy with the results before loading the bulk of your collection. Especially when it comes to choice of UPnP server software and file format. 

You will always find differing opinions here; for example, I store FLACs and transcode to WAV on playback, and to me this sounds identical to stored WAVs. Maybe this is hardware or software dependent, or maybe I'm tone deaf, but the point is that you need to try for yourself. If you want to try transcoding FLAC to WAV on playback, make sure you choose server software that can do this. 

Good luck!

ChrisSU posted:

With an all new setup I would strongly recommend that you rip, tag, store and play a small number of albums and make sure you're happy with the results before loading the bulk of your collection. Especially when it comes to choice of UPnP server software and file format. 

You will always find differing opinions here; for example, I store FLACs and transcode to WAV on playback, and to me this sounds identical to stored WAVs. Maybe this is hardware or software dependent, or maybe I'm tone deaf, but the point is that you need to try for yourself. If you want to try transcoding FLAC to WAV on playback, make sure you choose server software that can do this. 

 

Good luck!

That's a good idea, perhaps I'll put a small batch of music on the NAS to start and compare the FLAC and the WAV versions of the same song and listen for any differences.

I planned on installing minimserver to transcode my flac files and play gapless.  I think I read somewhere I'll need minimserver to playback DSD music on my new Synology 716+ NAS.

blownaway posted:

 

Does if matter that the file was compressed originally in Flac?  Can an originally WAV file go to flac file THEN go back 100% to wav without losing anything? Or is it better to convert to WAV from the beginning for the best sound then if you need to convert to flac.  

 

I personally don't believe that retro converting a compressed file will result in the original.
Compression (even losses like FLAC or ALAC) follows a basic principle: take out bits of the music spectrum, the algorithm (programmed by a human) 'believes' are not important, remove them, thus making a final output file smaller.  I am sure there are differing opinions on that subject, though.

Personally I cannot tell a difference between a FLAC and WAV at the same bit depth and sampling rate. 
But I still prefer 'uncompressed' - makes me feel better

Adam Zielinski posted

Compression (even losses like FLAC or ALAC) follows a basic principle: take out bits of the music spectrum, the algorithm (programmed by a human) 'believes' are not important, remove them, thus making a final output file smaller.  I am sure there are differing opinions on that subject, though.

 

Hi Adam, I think you might have got slightly mixed up.

With lossless files such as FLAC or ALAC, none of signal data information is discarded. It is PCM, and the compression is achieved my more efficiently packing the data... But the data information stays the same.. In PCM there is much redundant data, that is purely there because of the method of representing that data information.. therefore this representation can be optimised and a reduction of the total data achieved without affecting the signal or sample information data whatsoever.. So signal data or sample data can be converted ad infinitim with no loss of information. In information theory this is called Entropy and is a key backbone to data coms and information technology. Now whether you can hear the differing artefacts caused by the electrical noise produced by unpacking the data encoding types on sensitive audio equipment is a seperate matter.

However MP3, AAC and Vorbis work using psychoacoustic masking techniques.. they remove data that most people don't need to hear the main part of the sound and music .. here signal or sample data information is permanently lost and can never be recovered. So each new lossy conversion reduces in more data being lost and the information degenerates (with these codecs quite quickly)

Simon

Hi Simon - I stand corrected. You are of course right on the FLAC compression technique