What format to rip into?
Posted by: Stover on 18 August 2011
As mentioned in another thread I plan to purchase a NAS and rip my cd`s. Then later go for a Naim streamer as NDX for playback.
My Mac can rip to WAV and AIFF amongst other, but WAV I guess is not userfriendly when it comes to adjusting metadata, track info and so on?
Looks like AIFF is supported by all Naim boxes, except from UQute?
Will rip into FLAC from my Windows laptop to NAS be for the best compromise?
PS! I have decided not to purchase UServe.
Thanks Steinar
Just to make this clear to me. You advise to download the DBpoweramp version to be paid for, then you get mer options and flexibility?
Next, do you rip to WAV then?
Sorry for my need of repeat.
Steinar
That's OK asking again, I can understand you wanting to.get it right and optimise from the outset. I don't know enough or I'd write an FAQ.
Well I suppose most people would want such extended information other than main artist name and track name on tracks, not to enjoy the music but to do things they'd use the sleeve notes on CDs for; IDing tracks and procuring more music based on track information. Emulating the record listening experience including reading the sleeve notes is the name of the game.
I wouldn't want to waste money on an album because I loved a track on a CD, wanted more music from that artist and it transpired the track was only to my liking because of the rework by the remix producer who was uncredited on the standard tags.
The version of dBpoweramp incremented 14.1 to 14.2 from when I downloaded the intial version on trial and the version I paid for last week.
As with any software I'd suggest downloading the trial version of it to begin with and see if it fits your needs. The trial version if free to use for 21 days with full functionality, then some of the functionality is restricted (subscription metatag providers) or disabled (right clicking on a file to edit ID tags and embed artwork).
I'm quite broke and was struggling even for the $38 for the licence, really glad I bought it though.
It's great for multiple artwork for CD booklets and custom default tags. I've put in default tag fields for instrumentation if I'm in trainspotter mode so I can look up different synths and VSTs for particular styles Korg M1 for classic house tracks, Nord lead, Virus T1 for psy and electro tracks...
I rip to WAV. It's more verstile than I initially thought I have a 200GB peak time, unlimited off-peak time download limit, HDD storage is affordable so there's not much mileage for me in saving a few MB on albums I downolad. If I downloaded loads of albums I would possibly download as uncompressed FLAC, transcode and save as WAV though I'm not sure whether the saving in download time is traded off by the transcoding time.
I've noticed WMP11 (currently serving up tunes to my Qute until I get a NAS) does not natively support FLAC unless there is something I'm missing. All my FLAC downloads (two of them!) aren't served up to my Qute by WMP. There is probably a WMP plug in but I haven;t bothered to look for one for two downloaded test tracks. dBpoweramp and loads of other apps can transcode them to WAV
I don't know about interoperability with software on Apple devices (other than Naim software which obviously supports WAV, FLAC ) as I don't have any Apple devices.
i just did tests with poweramp on a windows machine and i tunes and xld on mac. i decided to rip on my mac powertower with xld ( which rips in accurate mode ) into FLAC with great results. i decided after comparing flac and wav and xld with poweramp. it works great and it rips quite fast. i use a liteon 624 ihas dvdrip drive installed into the powermac. that one rips even nicer then the all-time favorite plextor drive.
There isn;t anything to get one's head round in uPnP. The point in universal plug and play is that in supported devices it's err, universal and plug and play . You plug it in then play. It's all user transparent and needs very little setup.
You're kidding, right? A torrent of difficulties with it, discussed on this forum at length, would suggest otherwise. Perhaps the least appropriate nomenclature since Microsoft's "Plays for Sure". It is far from "Universal" and is pretty much never "Plug and Play".
With Asset for example, load software, run it, press unblock on any firewall pop up window that appears, click into Asset where your media is kept. Voila you are up and running.
Simon
Frank, thanks for your post, although I couldn't understand most of it. My point was that this forum contains many members with wide range interests, and levels of IT literacy, etc. For me, I love listening ot high quality music, but my needs are fairly simple, and I have little or no interest in the digital processing and set up. So for me Unitiserve is a great, if expensive product.
But it's probably not for you or many others. That's fine too.
Cheers, Paul
There isn;t anything to get one's head round in uPnP. The point in universal plug and play is that in supported devices it's err, universal and plug and play . You plug it in then play. It's all user transparent and needs very little setup.
You're kidding, right? A torrent of difficulties with it, discussed on this forum at length, would suggest otherwise. Perhaps the least appropriate nomenclature since Microsoft's "Plays for Sure". It is far from "Universal" and is pretty much never "Plug and Play".
As with any human endeavor, that is less the responsibility of the specification than that of the implementor. This has been borne out with DLNA certification, which basically starts from the premise of limited file type / codec support with limited flexibility.
Every DLNA device on the planet must be able to play back 16-bit / 44.1kHz or 48kHz linear PCM by necessity–if your UPnP/DLNA server is able to decode (as opposed to transcode) to WAV, it doesn't matter what file type you extract your CD-DA discs to, from a playback perspective.
Metadata is a different issue altogether, as this is mapped to the actual content–any flexibility you provide for yourself at the extraction, tagging and encoding stage will be borne out later (as metadata providers improve or increase the depth of detail that corresponds to a certain fixed set of media assets).
98% of the complaints come from those unwilling to use anything but Mac OS.
Sorry.... but it is true. I can only guess you are in that camp.
Otherwise it actually works very well.
Grab an iOS device and go to one of your loser acquaintances and see how money it is.
-Patrick
Thanks Frank for your well contained whrite up.
Myself I have to swallow, translate and check out.
I am checking several aspects of ripping, storing and how to control things.
The first step is to download trial version of DBP and check out how to set it up and how WAV act.
I must admit that some times I look back at a cdplayer, but when I first got used to HD rips theres no way back, although I am not pleased with Mac and remote app.
Steinar