Flac

[PewterTA]

You know EAC + Accurip + FLAC will give you basically the same as dbPowerAmp... and it's free...... Just saying.

Think of FLAC and the full version the same thing as printing a letter, vs writing it out in cursive. MOST people when writing cursive take a lot more space vs. just printing it out. They both "say" the same thing, one just takes a lot more pages than the other (where pages are the space on a Hard Drive). The "text" or words are the music.

[Skyblue]

Mac mini with HDMi into the SSP-800 :T

My dealer came and took my 802's away yesterday. But before he did, we sat down and listened to some music for half an hour. We tried a couple of things. And one of them was to run hdmi straight to the ssp 800 instead of through the ayre qb9 dac that I love so much.

The result was startling. The hdmi sounded a lot better and I was dumbfounded. That wasnt supposed to happen, as I told him.

Anyway, I suspect the usb on the computer simply wasnt up to the task. I have now moved the ayre down to my headphone system, and down here the music is fantastic, 3d and all. But with the ssp800, 802di's it was a bit muffled. New computer, new cables. I must have my ayre sound at full volume.

That being said, the simple asio4all -> hdmi -> ssp 800 sounded great, and still do even with the 805s that currently takes up a lot less space than the 802s.

[jpbas1]

Apple Lossless vs FLAC

On a side note, how does apple lossless (ALE) compare to the standard FLAC format?

Thank you in advance...

[Rod#S]

I need some help. I finally got around to downloading some of the albums available via the Society of Sound, I downloaded the high res FLAC files however I have nothing that can play FLAC files natively. I have a Xbox 360, PS3 and a Denon DVD-A1 and none support the format. I can't connect my computer to my SSP via HDMI because my SSP does not have HDMI so that leaves me with one choice, convert the files and burn them to CD/DVD. What file format should I convert them to while preserving the high resolution and what applications would be recommended? I have a PC not a Mac.

Thanks

Rod

[stuofsci02]

If you burn to CD they will be in 16 bit 44.1khz...

[Skyblue]

I need some help. I finally got around to downloading some of the albums available via the Society of Sound, I downloaded the high res FLAC files however I have nothing that can play FLAC files natively. I have a Xbox 360, PS3 and a Denon DVD-A1 and none support the format. I can't connect my computer to my SSP via HDMI because my SSP does not have HDMI so that leaves me with one choice, convert the files and burn them to CD/DVD. What file format should I convert them to while preserving the high resolution and what applications would be recommended? I have a PC not a Mac.

Thanks

Rod

Well your computer perhaps have a soundcard? At least it must have analog stereo out. If its not a laptop, quite decent soundcards can be had for around $100 that will beat cd players at least 5 times its cost.

[Rod#S]

If you burn to CD they will be in 16 bit 44.1khz...

I was hoping to preserve the high res, would converting to .wav files work?

[Rod#S]

Well your computer perhaps have a soundcard? At least it must have analog stereo out. If its not a laptop, quite decent soundcards can be had for around $100 that will beat cd players at least 5 times its cost.

I am using a laptop and it only has digital out via HDMI.

[Skyblue]

I am using a laptop and it only has digital out via HDMI.

Have you considered a usb dac? They come at all prices and are very competitive price vice versus cd players. I have the ayre qb9, but go to computeraudiophile.com and read his reviews. All of the recommended components there are sure to be excellent.

[stuofsci02]

Grantfidelity DAC-09 ($215)...

Or if you have a player that can do DVD-A you can burn your Hi-Rez files to DVD-A to preserve the 24 bit 96/192. This is what I do with my Oppo 83SE.

Cheers..

[Rod#S]

Have you considered a usb dac? They come at all prices and are very competitive price vice versus cd players. I have the ayre qb9, but go to computeraudiophile.com and read his reviews. All of the recommended components there are sure to be excellent.

No, I'm about to get a pair of 802 diamonds so spending money on anything else but them is something I'm definitely looking to avoid :lol: Thanks for the link though I'll check it out.

[Rod#S]

Grantfidelity DAC-09 ($215)...

Or if you have a player that can do DVD-A you can burn your Hi-Rez files to DVD-A to preserve the 24 bit 96/192. This is what I do with my Oppo 83SE.

Cheers..

My Denon Blu-ray player does play DVD-A, what application are you using to convert FLAC to DVD-A?

Thanks

[emig5m]

I find that even mp3 when encoded well (LAME @ 320cbr) can be hard to discern from lossless - even using headphones. Yes, MP3's from p2p networks can sound like ass because they try to go for smaller filesize over better quality and who knows what encoder. But try your own encodes with LAME @ 320cbr and you might be impressed. I use FLAC anyway for critical listening just to make sure, and LAME 320cbr for my portable MP3 player.... I also use dbPowerAmp. My entire music collection has a copy of both FLAC for critical listening and MP3 for portable players.

[scanido]

I need some help. I finally got around to downloading some of the albums available via the Society of Sound, I downloaded the high res FLAC files however I have nothing that can play FLAC files natively. I have a Xbox 360, PS3 and a Denon DVD-A1 and none support the format. I can't connect my computer to my SSP via HDMI because my SSP does not have HDMI so that leaves me with one choice, convert the files and burn them to CD/DVD. What file format should I convert them to while preserving the high resolution and what applications would be recommended? I have a PC not a Mac.

Thanks

Rod

Check out TVersity and you will be able to stream your FLACs to your Xbox or PS3. The utility will decode and send a PCM signal to your proc witout any loss of detail. This is what I am using and have been very pleased.

[Rod#S]

Would I be losing resolution going through the 360 using TVersity? The reason I ask is because I don't believe the Xbox supports 96/24. The PS3 in theory should because it is a Blu-ray player but I'm assuming that would only be via HDMI and not Toslink which I'm using.

[emig5m]

Would I be losing resolution going through the 360 using TVersity? The reason I ask is because I don't believe the Xbox supports 96/24. The PS3 in theory should because it is a Blu-ray player but I'm assuming that would only be via HDMI and not Toslink which I'm using.

I don't use products like the XBox360 for critical listening for fear that I'm adding another unneeded step of resampling/reprocessing kinda like some DVD players only output 48KHz where CD audio is 44.1KHz. Not that I'm against processing, just don't trust lower-fi gear to do it without veiling/adding distortion and don't like adding another step of resampling/reprocessing again for no real reason. I like and use processing, but there's a time to use it and a time where it seems redundant and lowers quality. With that said, there's absolutely no reason for me to stream anyway as my HTPC is connected to my pre/pro via HDMI and digital optical. Streaming to the 360 just adds redundancy and another piece of electronics for the signal to pass through - totally pointless for me.

[Tony1]

Do you need a quality sound card when burning Flac files or is burning files just software drivin?

[emig5m]

Do you need a quality sound card when burning Flac files or is burning files just software drivin?

Software driven. But for playback, that can be a different thing depending if you're bitstreaming or using the soundcard's processing.

[scanido]

I don't use products like the XBox360 for critical listening for fear that I'm adding another unneeded step of resampling/reprocessing kinda like some DVD players only output 48KHz where CD audio is 44.1KHz. Not that I'm against processing, just don't trust lower-fi gear to do it without veiling/adding distortion and don't like adding another step of resampling/reprocessing again for no real reason. I like and use processing, but there's a time to use it and a time where it seems redundant and lowers quality. With that said, there's absolutely no reason for me to stream anyway as my HTPC is connected to my pre/pro via HDMI and digital optical. Streaming to the 360 just adds redundancy and another piece of electronics for the signal to pass through - totally pointless for me.

Not sure about the Xbox360, but with the PS3 you can explicitly set the audio output to 44.1Khz which will provide you the same resolution as CD without any re sampling. All else being constant ie (CPU, decoder) and there are no network constraints with streaming, then the same PCM signal will arrive at your DAC regardless of whichever option you choose for delivery, so you are theoretically not losing out on sound quality.

[Shinnosuki]

I used to have my PS3 play MP3..Now I play flac through a laptop. But with the PS3 I notice at 44.1khz the sound is harsh on the highs, then I switch to 48k in the audio setting and it got smoother. The setup was PS3 > Optical to V-DAC > Rotel preamp 1056 > Rotel 1077 power amp > B&W 705..I'm not really a technical person that I can explain all this, but that's what I remember hearing.

[PewterTA]

Get this on your PC and set it up.... Pretty easy to do.

PS3 Media Server:

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

It will transcode all hi-res and play them through the PS3 into your denon. You can mess with your PS3 settings to see which format output sounds best. For me the lowest 16/44.1 to my 840c upconverted to 24/384 sounds best when listening to hi-res 24/96K music.

I need some help. I finally got around to downloading some of the albums available via the Society of Sound, I downloaded the high res FLAC files however I have nothing that can play FLAC files natively. I have a Xbox 360, PS3 and a Denon DVD-A1 and none support the format. I can't connect my computer to my SSP via HDMI because my SSP does not have HDMI so that leaves me with one choice, convert the files and burn them to CD/DVD. What file format should I convert them to while preserving the high resolution and what applications would be recommended? I have a PC not a Mac.

Thanks

Rod