Can't play WAV from USB unsupported device connected

HI all, I thought I would sign up for Chesky’s new music service and they deliver the files in WAV format. I tried loading them in Minimserver but it shows the file and doesn’t play. So I copied them to a USB and plugged that into the NDX. It says unsupported device connected. It is formatted as exFAT. Isn’t that supported on an NDX? What are the right formats? Has anyone had success playing WAV files using Minimserver? So many questions - so few answers.

Please help me Obi-Wan - you’re my only hope.

According to the NDX manual, no exFAT:

USB memory hardware must be in Windows/DOS format
(FAT/FAT32) to be used with the NDX/5XS.

I have no idea why a WAV file isn’t played by Minim

Do the files play using other software, such as iTunes or VLC on a computer?
If not, do the downloads come in a zipped file that needs to be unzipped to extract the usable files?

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Yes, they send you a zip file with two folders one for windows and one for mac. Inside the windows folder they have two folders, one with files set up for headphones and another for speakers. They also include a PDF booklet describing the music. The music files themselves are .wav files and you can play them fine with VLC. It’s something about the files themselves that makes Minimserver spit the dummy and refuse to render them.

Hi, thanks for that. I pulled up the PDF for the NDX-ND5 (it’s the same file) and on page 20, section 7.1 they do say that you need FAT or FAT32. So this morning I’ll format my usb stick to FAT 32 and see how that goes.

OK, now I know what’s going on. The Chesky release contains two types of wav - one is for headphones and one for speakers. The headphones one doesn’t work and Minimserver is doing some kind of sanity check and refusing to render those. The USB stick with FAT32 worked fine but won’t play the headphone tracks either. I can convert the headphone WAV to FLAC but it boils it down to 44/16 so there is no point doing that.

I purchased the graffiti album and downloaded also the free sampler, they played with no problems.

The graffiti comes with 3 versions, DSD, pcm for headphones and pcm for stereo. Played via roon and also with asset upnp without an issue all versions.

Could be that the pen or usb device connected is not reading as expected, or the unpack of the files could had an error.

On Mac use the unarchiver the operator system default compressor sometimes in big files 4gb or more normally does not work as expected at least on some files. The app for Mac the unarchiver is free.

How are you converting WAV to FLAC? A lossless conversion should not reduce a HiRes file down to 16/44.1 unless the conversion software has been specifically set to do so.
No idea what a ‘headphone’ version would be. Maybe it’s had some sort of digital eq applied but that shouldn’t stop a WAV file from playing.

I used an application called VLC. It produces a playable file but apparently it downscaled high resolution files down to CD quality. Is there an application that doesn’t do that?

Thanks sonwleo, I downloaded the Graffiti album too and both sets of DSD played fine over the NDX. I guess the processing he is applying renders WAV headphone files unplayable. But I don’t care, the DSD sounds fantastic! What an album!

I played on an NDX2 not an NDX, but it should play, the file is only a wav file with different mastering for headphones heavier bass and a more realistic soundstage on headphones. You can download the free sampler on the site it has a file also from the graffiti album and test with the sampler if the same issue occurs.

If you use Mac XLD is the way to go, is also free and good to rip your CD collection to a NAS.

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