File-based audio playback - compressed vs. uncompressed

[Alex_UK]

AOS is famous for going in different tangents then getting back on track its part of our charm

or sometimes not getting back on track!

The important thing is that even when we don't agree, we always remain civil and respectful of others opinions - by and large there are few punch ups on AoS.

[bobbasrah]

or sometimes not getting back on track!

The important thing is that even when we don't agree, we always remain civil and respectful of others opinions - by and large there are few punch ups on AoS.

Tangents I don't mind at all. Obtuse I have difficulty with. I suppose it depends on what the angle is.....

[Ali Tait]

This looks interesting. Anyone heard one?

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/co...-Player-Review

[Stratmangler]

Maybe my dac is crap, despite it being by far the best sounding I've had in my system.

I think you've hit the nail on the head Ali.
Send it to me and I'll dispose of it for you, while you go off and find a decent sounding one

[Ali Tait]

Thanks mate, I'll send it off!

[AlexM]

OK, I spent a little time listening to some CDs ripped into FLAC files by DBPowerAMP, and another copy transcoded back to WAV.

Playback is via ethernet SB Touch into my Cambridge Audio CA840. Source FLAC files were compressed at level 5.

I built some playlists for the sample tracks, and then shuffle played the tracks so that i didn't know which track was playing and listened to the first minute or so.

The test tracks were 'My Bass' by Brian Bromberg, 'Bamboo Forest' by Miroslav Vitous, and 'New York Minute' by Herbie Hancock.

To cut to the chase, I didn't notice any differences consistently and couldn't really tell them apart. I did find that the sound appeared to change slightly as I listened more. I think that this was probably as a result of concentrating on details of the tracks in order to discern a difference, but I couldn't tell which was which.

By comparison, I can easily tell a signficant difference between TOSLINK and Co-ax SPDIF inputs, and any differences I spotted were a lot less significant than this. I'm not sure if I could detect any differences, much less tell which was which.

So, in conclusion, at least in my case I can't tell the difference. I guess this is what I was expecting, but at least I now know that I can carry on using FLAC with confidence. i will do some further testing with playback from USB sticks.

Your mileage may vary - at least in this configuration FLAC playback works as well as LPCM.

Cheers,
Alex

[bobbasrah]

Thanks for the update Alex....
Will be interested in the stick experiment simply out of curiosity....

[Welder]

OK, I spent a little time listening to some CDs ripped into FLAC files by DBPowerAMP, and another copy transcoded back to WAV.

Playback is via ethernet SB Touch into my Cambridge Audio CA840. Source FLAC files were compressed at level 5.

I built some playlists for the sample tracks, and then shuffle played the tracks so that i didn't know which track was playing and listened to the first minute or so.

The test tracks were 'My Bass' by Brian Bromberg, 'Bamboo Forest' by Miroslav Vitous, and 'New York Minute' by Herbie Hancock.

To cut to the chase, I didn't notice any differences consistently and couldn't really tell them apart. I did find that the sound appeared to change slightly as I listened more. I think that this was probably as a result of concentrating on details of the tracks in order to discern a difference, but I couldn't tell which was which.

By comparison, I can easily tell a signficant difference between TOSLINK and Co-ax SPDIF inputs, and any differences I spotted were a lot less significant than this. I'm not sure if I could detect any differences, much less tell which was which.

So, in conclusion, at least in my case I can't tell the difference. I guess this is what I was expecting, but at least I now know that I can carry on using FLAC with confidence. i will do some further testing with playback from USB sticks.

Your mileage may vary - at least in this configuration FLAC playback works as well as LPCM.

Cheers,
Alex

Here we go again

Why didn't you just use the original WAV rip? Why convert to Flac and then back to WAV?

[Chops]

To cut to the chase, I didn't notice any differences consistently and couldn't really tell them apart. I did find that the sound appeared to change slightly as I listened more. I think that this was probably as a result of concentrating on details of the tracks in order to discern a difference, but I couldn't tell which was which.

Exactly the same as my experience, although I fed a different DAC (Chord QBD76) from a similarly configured SBT.

Chris

[AlexM]

Here we go again

Why didn't you just use the original WAV rip? Why convert to Flac and then back to WAV?

John,

I didn't rip to wav from the cd so I had to convert the flax to wav in order to do this test. I don't think it made any difference to the outcome.

Chops and I have found that CPU utilisation is higher playing LPCM both at 16/44 and 24/88, and if one is to believe that is a bad thing then best not to bother with wavs, especially as they take up more disk space and sound the same!

All in all, a good outcome as I don't have to worry about doing anything to my library..

Alex