Ripping and playback

Posted by: Rjt36 on 29 April 2018

Hello all,

Can you please help me. I'm using dbPoweramp to rip CD's to my Synology  NAS to then stream using the inbuilt DSM package to a Nac272. The files are ripped as FLAC but when the files show on the streamer, they appear as WAV files?  Is this correct? Similarly, I have some M4a files which were ripped pre me understanding about dbPoweramp and they also show as WAV files? I'd be grateful for any advice please. Thank you! 

Posted on: 29 April 2018 by Adam Zielinski

By the looks of it your UPnP software has ‘transcoding’ enabled. Which actually is a good thing.

This way a compressed format like FLAC is presented to your N272 in an uncompressed format. WAV being the ‘native’ counterpart to FLAC.

Posted on: 29 April 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk

As said, it appears your media server is set transcode the formats to WAV PCM. This has benefitted Naim streamers in the past, but do try adjusting the media server to natively present the files... I find the WAV, FLAC and ALAC differences far less audible in the newer firmware... and you might just find you prefer the files when natively presented.

Posted on: 29 April 2018 by Mike-B

Hi Rjt36,  to enable/disable transcoding on your Synology;    open the Synology DiskStation GUI on your computer,  open Media Server,  open DMA Compatibility & there you will see the transcoding enabling checkboxes.       

I'm all WAV so have no need to transcode & its been a while since I last played with this;  in the past the Synology Media Server transcoding software downsampled 24-bit to 16-bit & also had problems playing gapless.   I would be tempted to disable it & try it for yourself on your system & play FLAC natively,  In the past when I compared FLAC vs WAV I found I prefered WAV,  although its all very marginal.

Posted on: 29 April 2018 by Rjt36

Thank you all for taking the trouble to reply......I will take a look at the settings and see if I can hear a difference.

just for intetrest, does dbPoweramp rip to WAV?  I can see FLAC but couldn’t see WAV?