File-based audio playback - compressed vs. uncompressed

[Ali Tait]

That must be it Ali. I have the same problem. Now if we had truly transparent and resolving systems where no expense or efforts had been spared then no doubt we would also be able to hear the difference between Flac and WAV.........

Interestingly I cant hear a difference with my mates file setup either and his is probably the best file system I've heard. Strangely neither his or mine have a laptop or SBT or a Caiman in the chain so that automatically rules us out as deaf.

I did mention I would submit my findings from my purpose built server and the rest of my crap kit but I got the impression that my contribution may not be welcome; prolly coz I piss about too much and don't seem to be taking the debate seriously enough; can't really argue tbh.

Oh well, back to a few awful sounding Flac files then.

Well I'd be interested mate, I'm happy with the Touch, but I know there's better to be had from file audio, so I'd like to know what you've been up to and what you've found.

[John]

Yes
I do not have an expensive DAC in my system its the effects of cutting down on what going on in Windows that makes the difference

[Ali Tait]

Interesting John. I believe John (Welder) has said the same in the past, as have others.

[John]

Yes I think John's path quite an interesting route to take

[StanleyB]

Strangely neither his or mine have a laptop or SBT or a Caiman in the chain so that automatically rules us out as deaf.

Come again mate? What has my Caiman DAC got to do with this discussion? You trying to be insulting towards my product or what?

[bobbasrah]

Come again mate? What has my Caiman DAC got to do with this discussion? You trying to be insulting towards my product or what?

Possibly with refernce to what preceded it Stan "Now if we had truly transparent and resolving systems where no expense or efforts had been spared then no doubt we would also be able to hear the difference between Flac and WAV" ??

[bobbasrah]

Come again mate? What has my Caiman DAC got to do with this discussion? You trying to be insulting towards my product or what?

Since you are here, could you contribute to this thread Stan by detailing the circumstances and equipment used at the time please?
We know it was FLAC and optical input but additional information would certainly help.

[bobbasrah]

Since you are here, could you contribute to this thread Stan by detailing the circumstances and equipment used at the time please?
We know it was FLAC and optical input but additional information would certainly help.

Ah well, perhaps not.

The stripped down Win OS and the Linux solutions are all very well, but does Win7 have the same issues to deal with?
As I understood it, Win7 is less intrusive to the audio chain.
This system runs flawlessly without any side effects that I know of, or is that wishful thinking?

PS - Anybody know?

[John]

Ah well, perhaps not.

The stripped down Win OS and the Linux solutions are all very well, but does Win7 have the same issues to deal with?
As I understood it, Win7 is less intrusive to the audio chain.
This system runs flawlessly without any side effects that I know of, or is that wishful thinking?

PS - Anybody know?

Certainly not my experience Windows 7 doing a lot of processing that effect audio

[Welder]

Despite my fun poking at JPlay to my ears it did make an audible difference to sound replay on a Win7 system.

The answer is of course, try it and decide for yourself.
My view is standard set PC's and laptops don't make for ideal audio replay.
If your "serious" about file based audio then at some point you have to leave the general purpose computer doing what it does best and build another computer that concentrates on audio.
I understand that JPlay does a lot of the "virtual audio only" server stuff on a general purpose machine, but you are still left with a few hardware problems that are more easily overcome by a server build.
Using JPlay, your laptop isn't really able to anything else apart from the tasks JPlay allows so in effect you don't have a laptop computer at all.
So' you've paid for a laptop and JPlay and still not got what many would argue is the optimal hardware.
One computer for audio,one for general purpose computing; starts getting expensive and neither is quite fit for either task all the time.