NAS and Media Streamer for FLAC?

[cbarone]

Quick breakfast update:

I used iTunes to rip a Guns N' Roses CD last night and the results (SQ) were very good. iTunes has a setting allowing you to convert inserted CD's into WAV format. (Note; the conversion takes substantially longer compared to EAC). The resulting tracks are large, the 14 tracks on the CD total a massive 870Mb on my PC and individually range from 34Mb up to 100Mb. They are displaying in iTunes as 1536kbps 'Bit Rate', and 'Sample Rate' of 48.000kHz. (I actually set the 48.000kHz option in iTunes not knowing what it really was, however my Matrix DAC only displayed 44.1 kHz even though its capable of up to 192 kHz 'on paper').

After the CD ripping I hooked the laptop up to the DAC and used an app called 'Remote' (an actual Apple app) on my iphone to control iTunes on the laptop (which was at that stage positioned over near the hifi). This is a neat solution, most convenient sit back with the iPhone/iPad control the laptop and the SQ is pretty good. Before I get 'apple assaulted' its def not as good as the same CD played on the Meridian 500 Transport through the same DAC but it is pretty good and like yourselves I'm picky when it comes to SQ :-)

So WAV's are a solution for me, as is possibly using iTunes to convert my CD collection because it looks after all the metadata (track names and album artwork).

Its ok for the likes of us audiophiles to root around with the hifi, interconnects, units, psu etc but the rest of the family have no idea how to use it and that's a real shame. I want to arrive at a solution where others in the house can switch on the distribution mains block, select the correct source on the pre-amp and sit back with the iPad and listen to reasonable quality music from the system. Its looking like I might/should audition a JK USB DAC to complete this but I'm getting closer !

Thanks, Charlie

[cbarone]

Here's what the results of the iTunes conversion to WAV looks like on my laptop;

[cbarone]

And the same files viewed directly in iTunes;

[Ivor]

After the CD ripping I hooked the laptop up to the DAC and used an app called 'Remote' (an actual Apple app) on my iphone to control iTunes on the laptop

Just for info, there is also an Android app that allows you use the screen as a mouse. iRemote or something like that.

[Fran]

That app is called splashtop available on both android and apple and works very nicely.

****************

No point in ripping CDs any higher than 16/44 - that is the maximum that a CD can carry so if you convert to a higher bit rate you are only adding "empty" filler information. Higher bit rate files have to come from either SACD or DVD-A or best of all directly from the master tapes - but these are exceedingly rare.

Itunes is a good way to keep the album art altogether. You can download a trial version of jplay that integrates with itunes for even better playback quality.


Fran

[cbarone]

Thanks Fran - I noticed the 16bit/44.1 kHz rips were slightly smaller than 16bit/48kHz and wondered if there was any advantage for SQ. I understand 20bit SACD and 24bit from DVD-A, they appear to be two more 'left by the roadside to die' media. Plenty of future though in 20bit and 24bit digital formats as internet bandwidth and device storage capacities increase.

I'll take your good advice and change the iTunes CD conversion to 16bit/44.1kHz for Red Book CD's. (Tested last night and iTunes is quicker at this conversion and the output file sizes are smaller).

Yes, next step is definitely to hear Jplay, and final step will be to try a JK modified USB DAC.

[Fran]

Splashtop works lovely - as I'm sure the other app you mentioned does too - its particularly good on a tablet.

Good work on the ripping!!


Fran

[Ken Moreland]

The Absolute Sound mag assigned a subjective sound quality rating to players and rippers.
PLAYERS WAV files
A PS Audio PWT-PWD playing redbook cd rated at 100 for reference
JRiver scored 110
Songbird scored 120
Winamp scored 80
Itunes scored 115
Jplay scored 180

RIPPERS CD to WAV
dBPA scored 140
Foobar scored 135
EAC scored 110
iTunes scored 95
Winamp scored 75

For JPlay an Hrx disc copied to HD 176/24 and preupsampled to 192/24 with Hibernate scored 280!

KM

[cbarone]

Got jplay working on 64bit laptop. Ver 4.1 that interfaces somewhat abruptly with iTunes.

Need to work on this a little more, unsure of settings.

Beach or River anyone?
Can't get it to Hibernate at all?
Seems to lock up everything even after finishing one track, had to use Task Master a few times. Nothing running apart from jplay and iTunes.

Ques - should I start iTunes as normal and then start the jplay prog? Or should I be starting jplay and letting that launch iTunes (which it does). One way is causing problems, think its the latter when jplay then launches iTunes, I get messages about KS (guess Kernel Streaming) not being able to control the sound device or something along those lines.

Beginning to feel very like work.......

[cbarone]

Thanks for the reports Ken, I'll give dbPoweramp a trial, have you got a reliable link for it?

TY