Rotel & MP3/Flac Files

[tpirovol]

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering what everyone uses to get mp3/Flac files to there Rotel? I am using a PS3 with linear PCM and TVersity but notice with multi-channel it sounds dull just wondering what everyone else uses and how it works for them?

Thanks Terry

[Bostonears]

I use a Slim Devices Squeezebox, with digital output to my RSP-1068. All my music files for home listening are lossless encoded in FLAC format. The sound is completely indistinguishable from CD.

[tpirovol]

Which one do you have?

[Club1820]

I use a Slim Devices Squeezebox, with digital output to my RSP-1068. All my music files for home listening are lossless encoded in FLAC format. The sound is completely indistinguishable from CD.

yep, same set up here. And also agree with the quality of sound.

I actually have two Squeezebox 3s. The other is connected to my Rotel 1052 Receiver. Plus I just picked up a Squeezebox Boom for the bedroom along with a Squeezebox Duet (not yet hooked up to anything but using the controller). Both of these items I picked up at Circuit City at 50-60% off!

I've had my first SB3 going on two years now. It has totally changed how I listen to my music now and have not really listened to my CD players in a very long time!

I highly recommend the Squeezebox products.

BTW: If you look closely at my Sig. you can see one of my SB3s on top of the speaker.

[mjb]

AppleTV or Airport Express with iTunes is another option (my prefered choice), but iTunes is not very good with FLAC.

[chanlon]

Interesting. I have had a completely different result.
My Arcam CD player using its onboard DAC sounds much better IMO than the Squeezebox connected to the 1069. I guess sound is subjective. Plus we are using different CD players.

I wish I could get it to sound like the Arcam!

[Club1820]

Chanlon, FLAC on the squeezebox or just Mp3? Well, if not too much different - then I think the convenience alone of having approx. 12k tunes at your disposal in a second can overide that. But I too must admit, when I have a serious listening session (few & far between), I will still play the CD.

But I love my squeezeboxes.

[thezone]

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering what everyone uses to get mp3/Flac files to there Rotel? I am using a PS3 with linear PCM and TVersity but notice with multi-channel it sounds dull just wondering what everyone else uses and how it works for them?

Thanks Terry

Hi Terry,

Can I ask how you got the flac files to play on the ps3? I am using an old modded x-box with my entire cd collection backed-up in flac. Sounds quite good and i like the media centre interface. The old x-box is the only pc i own that never crashes or has any issues, it doesn't slow down over time or ask for useless updates! But i also own a ps3 and aesthetically it looks better. Plus there is no point having the two if one can do the job. I only just started to look into this so excuse my ignorance. I want to up-size the hard drive and get it to play flac files. Alternatively if it can't play falc i'll just get a really big hard drive and convert all the flacs back to wavs. Theres no way I'll be sending mp3's to the 1095!

As far as serious listening goes, I've got a yamaha cds-2000 running balanced into a primare pre30 and then into a rmb-1095. There is no way any flac file playing off a computer will sound as good as that, but it is good for convenience

Cheers

Paul

[cdika17]

super noob questions, what is FLAC and how do you convert mp3/acc/mp4 to FLAC?

[chanlon]

I hear you. I love the Squeezebox.
I own both a Rotel 1068 and Rotel 1069 processor.
The Rotel 1069 actually sounds better than the 1068 for this application.
The newer D/A Converters are a major upgrade IMO. I can really hear the difference when using the Slim.

I sometimes wish I wasn't so picky with sound fidelity, etc.
However, If I was just happy with the convenience of the Squeezebox, I prob would have bought a Pioneer or Yamaha receiver.

I believe you can make a music server sound better than a CD.
However, comparing the Squeezebox and Arcam CD player, for my ears... there is no real comparison.

Chanlon, FLAC on the squeezebox or just Mp3? Well, if not too much different - then I think the convenience alone of having approx. 12k tunes at your disposal in a second can overide that. But I too must admit, when I have a serious listening session (few & far between), I will still play the CD.

But I love my squeezeboxes.

[wz2p7j]

Question

Do the Squeezebox units offer on screen display of track information and such? Or is it just the little display on the Squeezebox unit?

Thanks, Chris

[Kevin D]

super noob questions, what is FLAC and how do you convert mp3/acc/mp4 to FLAC?

FLAC is a loss-less compression technique that gets uncompressed as it's played so you don't lose any information on the original CD. Your MP3's all ready have lossy compression (information is all ready lost from the original CD), so while you can convert it to FLAC, it wouldn't sound any better. You would need to reconvert everything from the original CDs.

Kevin D.

[cdika17]

FLAC is a loss-less compression technique that gets uncompressed as it's played so you don't lose any information on the original CD. Your MP3's all ready have lossy compression (information is all ready lost from the original CD), so while you can convert it to FLAC, it wouldn't sound any better. You would need to reconvert everything from the original CDs.

Kevin D.

So for a person who downloads everything, mostly from itunes, is there a way to make the file any better, make the quality top notch?

I know i could go through the thousands of post and find out, but if you will, would be greatly appreciated.

[chanlon]

iTunes use a AAC compression of 256kbps.
Much better than the "original" 128kbps.

However its still compressed. Thus, not the equivalent of a CD.
There has to be some frequency loss. You may be very happy with the sound of the file. Personally, I purchase the CD. For the extra few $$$, you have a better sounding copy, and a physical copy of the media.

When you are importing your CD's, you have the option of importing them using Apple's lossless algorithm which many consider to be identical sounding to the CD. However at the expense of a much larger file size. You should try 320kbps and compare it to Apple's lossless.

Personally, I import at 320. If I'm "seriously" listening, I'll always either play the CD or vinyl copy.

[Blindamood]

There are also places to download higher-quality digital recordings, such as MusicGiants. I haven't tried them yet, but might be soon as I move to a new NAS storage solution with a Squeezebox front-end.

[Kevin D]

My music serve (Qsonix) has built in support for MusicGiants. I've spent about $100 so far and haven't had any complaints.

The files do have DRM, so I usually burn a CD after I download enough songs and then rip it back onto the unit.

Kevin D.

[cdika17]

My music serve (Qsonix) has built in support for MusicGiants. I've spent about $100 so far and haven't had any complaints.

The files do have DRM, so I usually burn a CD after I download enough songs and then rip it back onto the unit.

Kevin D.

How do you like the Qsonix system, would you recommend it, or would you recommend something else?

[tpirovol]

Hi Everyone,

I ended up buying a squeezebox and it is amazing. The audio sounds much better compared to my ps3. The only thing it lacks is a little less bass then the ps3 but the audio quality is much better.

Just thought i would put in my 2 cents.
Thanks Teryr

[Kevin D]

I really love it, and the wife actually uses it a lot. I had a Fireball before it and I had to make a play-list every time she wanted to listen.

With the Qsonix, everything is a playlist even whats playing now. You can drag a whole album over if you want, but essentially what you're listening to is very dynamic.

The meta-data from allmusic is awesome. You can have it create play-lists from any of the data available: genres, styles within genres, moods (angry, intense, happy, etc), and even events (guys night out, divorce, TGIF, etc). It does work amazingly well. Pick divorce & sad and you will get songs like 'missing you'... Pick divorce & happy and you will get songs like 'The B* is gone'

It does lack of features techie guys would like to see, but it is designed to be one of the easiest and most intuitive servers so the lack of rarely used features is understandable. Their support is awesome and they add features pretty regularly. They were working on FLAC support when I was thinking of buying and shipped my unit with beta software so I could go ahead and import all the FLAC files from my Fireball.

The iPod support is cool, just mark which play-lists you want to sync and it does it automatically when you plug one in. Plus since it's designed to have everything be lossless, it will pre-compress all your files to MP3 on the unused portion of the hard-drive for quick transfers to an ipod. They just added wireless iphone/itouch control that's pretty slick as well.

Kevin D.

[cdika17]

This is stricky a music server right? not a media server? I was looking at the popcorn hour A110 for a Mediatank. But if i were strickly music the Qsonix does look pretty good.

[Blindamood]

The files do have DRM, so I usually burn a CD after I download enough songs and then rip it back onto the unit.

Kevin, can you explain a little more about the purpose for this step?

[Kevin D]

This is stricky a music server right? not a media server? I was looking at the popcorn hour A110 for a Mediatank. But if i were strickly music the Qsonix does look pretty good.

Yes, music only and too expensive if you have to pay retail and don't all ready have a touchscreen.

Kevin D.

[Kevin D]

Kevin, can you explain a little more about the purpose for this step?

Files with DRM can only be played back on the machine that downloaded it. So I can't sync it to an iPod or copy it off the server and use somewhere else.

The DRM 'agreement' lets you burn a copy of the file to an audio CD up to 5 times. So I burn an audio CD full of my DRM files, rip that CD to FLAC (as the audio CD is not protected by DRM), and then transfer the files back over.

I would then have two lossless copies on the server, one with DRM, one without. Then I delete the one with it and I'm good to go.

Kevin D.

[cdika17]

Hmm, very sneaky, may have to try it out.

[Blindamood]

Files with DRM can only be played back on the machine that downloaded it. So I can't sync it to an iPod or copy it off the server and use somewhere else.

The DRM 'agreement' lets you burn a copy of the file to an audio CD up to 5 times. So I burn an audio CD full of my DRM files, rip that CD to FLAC (as the audio CD is not protected by DRM), and then transfer the files back over.

I would then have two lossless copies on the server, one with DRM, one without. Then I delete the one with it and I'm good to go.

Kevin D.

Thanks for the explanation. Sounds a little too 'easy', but if it works...