That’s nonsense. We can analyse a file of any type in as much detail as required. Binary if need be. It is an exact science.
so how about the compactness of the metadata claimed by Melco. Will it be visible on the metadata numbers?
100% absolutely.
Isn’t the playback of the file the issue, not the file itself?. I most certainly hear an improvement ripping and playing from a Uniti Core than from my iMac and uPNP programme. I expect noise sources are a factor here on playback. So, back on the OP, I think Naim are on the game with ripping.
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Correct @Mike_S. And I’m wondering how controlled such tests are. All things being equal, all compared files, for the audio tests, must be played back via the same server (melco, core, whstever). Now, hypothetically, if the content of the files were identical with only a metadarlta tag to indicate “this was ripped by melco” , and when played back by melco, a packet dump on the network showed that melco was treating otherwise identical files differently (such as treating non melco files as second class citizens), I’d be inclined to take those results to Trading Standards.
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if you want to test, you can rip a cd on your mac, and send it to the uniticore. Then compare this rip with the same album ripped by the core. Curious to know if you will prefer the core rip.
I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to try 
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you have never ripped a cd with XLD on your mac? i am not sure that you are joking or not. I am not at all a computer guy but installed very easily dbpoweramp on my pc to rip cds. You can install free XLD in 5 minutes and rip a cd in 5 minutes too. Then copy on a usb memory stick and transfer on your core.
I am joking. I just don’t want to find the Mac is better 
or have to report here that the Core is better, leading to a big argument 
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i understand. You would have after a lot of questions, posts, skepticism, and it will probably bother you as it bothered me.
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No worries, if it sounds good to you then it sounds good. We all hear things differently.
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Very nice, thanks for explaining the comparison process in detail!
What happens now if you remove all metadata from both the dBpoweramp and the Melco rips and do a second listening test?
If the differences in sound quality are gone, this strongly suggests that the Melco server is cheating. That would be sad but it would at least settle the issue.
If the differences after having removed the metadata are still there, then further investigations is needed to find out what is going on.
On a linux system, you can remove the metadata from a xxx.wav file with the command:
flac xxx.wav -o xxx.flac; cp xxx.flac yyy.flac; metaflac --dont-use-padding --remove-all yyy.flac; flac -d yyy.flac -o yyy.wav
This generates a yyy.wav file. If xxx.wav has no metadata, yyy.wav will be identical to xxx.wav. Otherwise, it will be different.
Not really cheating. Some renderers recognise instructions in metadata to apply normalisation or equalisation. JRiver can apply DSP, if you tell it not to then in my experience (one demo) it sounds same as Melco, with DSP it sounds better: subjective opinion, but obviously I tuned the DSP to my preference so inevitable I’d prefer it. This is one reason I prefer Mac mini wirh JRiver MC to most audiophile music servers. The Roon Nucleus could be an exception as it also does DSP.
To me room correction is a trick Naim is missing. It would have helped in the Statement demo I attended where the sound did not do the kit justice.
Good point! Of couse, if one rip contains replay gain tags (or other DSP directives) and the other one doesn’t, there is no reason to expect that they should sound the same on every renderer!
That’s hopefully the case for the rips tested by DB and FR. This would settle the issue and is also an aspect that can be checked easily, e.g., using lltag for .flac files:
~/audio/test$ lltag -S aaa.flac
aaa.flac:
ARTIST=Hoff Ensemble: Jan Gunnar Hoff, Audun Kleive & Anders Jormin
TITLE=Innocence
ALBUM=POLARITY — an acoustic jazz project
NUMBER=1
GENRE=Jazz
DATE=2018
COMMENT=Generated by Merging Technologies Album Publishing
CATALOGNUMBER=7041888523628
ALBUMARTIST=Hoff Ensemble
COMPOSER=Jan Gunnar Hoff
ENCODEDBY=Merging Technologies Album Publishing
LABEL=2L
TRACKTOTAL=12
DISCNUMBER=1
ISRC=NOMPP1801010
BARCODE=7041888523628
~/audio/test$
The metaflac program also allows one to remove (–remove-replay-gain option) or to add (–add-replay-gain) replay gain intormation only.
Thus, converting .wav to .flac and back, it is very easy to check if unexpected results are due to the presence of replay gain directives in the metadata or to something else.
i was not given any lessons of course. Just wanted to say that the comparison is essentially by ears. So the process is simple . But as you said , perhaps the melco treats the metadata differently and favors the melco rips. So in more accurate process, you should listen also to these rips on different servers ( mac mini, innuos, uniticore…).
At the end, if in all cases the sound quality is better for melco rips, i would say that the test is done.
No,.No and No,absolutely Not.
It is much better to learn how to install your music-system correctly.
And,.according to the acoustic conditions that have always existed.
If you are good at installation,.the result will be outstanding good.
Much better than what you refer to above.
/Peder🙂
Are you sure, Peder? Many users out there are very happy with Linn SO, and Roon DSP?
You are absolutely right. Linn Space Optimisation is ideal for optimising a system especially if you do not want a hifi system to dominate your room or you simply don’t have that luxury. Though any room can benefit. My Linn system was setup up by a top dealer who knew exactly how to optimise it for my cottage. I’m delighted with the results. I was able to use J-River DSP Studio to setup my Chord system; Roon DSP would have been a viable alternative.
Of course, there are those who do not understand the benefits of DSP or do not know how to setup a system properly using DSP that refute this. As always, the only way is to ignore the naysayers and give it a go. JRiver DSP Studio or Roon DSP enable those interested to give it ago with Naim kit. What is there to lose? If you don’t like it then you can switch it off.
If Naim offered Digital Room Correction then those who wanted it to get the best out of their systems in domestic environments would at least have this option. I think it would add value for many Naim customers.
Other things Naim could address are buzzing power supplies, need to leave the system powered up around the clock and need for dedicated mains feeds. Whereas some folk are happy to live with these demands, I’m glad neither current Linn nor Chord kit exhibit these problems and it be great if Naim could move away from these too. Most folk want to switch on and play music. Perhaps Naim is more for hifi people than music people, but I don’t think that’s the intention.
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the linn dealer in Paris doesn’t think that Space Optimization is always positive for sound quality. He prefers it disabled in most cases.
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Sorry that’s wrong. In my cottage, my system is set up extremely well and DSP gets the best out of it. I won’t get in to a debate with you about it as it would have no value. You seem to prefer a dogmatic audiophile approach, whereas I prefer to have options and choose what works best to let me enjoy music at home. My approach may or may not work for others, but it’s nice to have the option for those open minded folk, who wish to try it and hear for themselves. Different philosophies that I doubt we can reconcile.
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