i would 100% rather wrestle with the logical of the app vs the mechanical of a TT cartridge, tracking and anti skate
I think I tend to agree with you - but there are some who will be in their element with scales, jigs, Allen keys etc
S
Hi all, I also have a related question on dBpoweramp so thought this would be a good time to ask. I’ve been thinking of buying but haven’t yet, I used to have a Naim Unitiserve (since sold on) and had ripped all my CD’s to the WAV format as was recommend on this forum. I still have a hard drive with all the ripped CD’s but the indexing is not great to say the least. I was planning only buying dBpoweramp to re-rip my CD’s in FLAC format & at the same time improve the indexing, however after reading this thread could I just buy/use the software to convert the existing WAV files, is that correct? My understanding though & I may well be wrong was the old Unitiserve ripped in a non standard version of WAV, hence the question could I take the Unitiserve ripped WAV files & use dBPoweramp to convert to FLAC? Thanks
Hi - no, the Unitiserve created standard WAV files - but it did not embed the metadata in them unfortunately, that was stored in a separate database
the world needs engineers and mechanics
yes, that’s exactly what I did. converted a bunch of different file types to FLAC
If you simply want to convert WAV to FLAC fre:ac is a free audio converter that will do the job
indeed the world needs engineers - but they are certainly not all mechanics.
Most coverters are unable to incorporate the metadata from a Unitiserve or Core rip, so you lose it on conversion. So don’t try it with DBpoweramp.
If you have access to a Unitiserve (or an HDX or NS01, but not a Core) you can convert to FLAC on it. If not there is some software from Songkong that can do it.
The question is how to convert non-standard Naim ripped versions of WAV.
The standard WAVEform Audio Format (.wav) follow the IBM standard RIFF structure & embed metadata as a LIST-INFO chunk.
This standard is the one that dBpoweramp (and all the others) file conversion apps can work with.
The non-standard Naim encoded WAV files has metadata in a separate file, that can only play on a Naim player. (Naim players can also play the standard WAV)
Converting these non-standard files from “Naim WAV” to FLAC can only be done (easily) on a Naim UnitiServe or HDX.
Reading through this thread it reminded me of something I was trying to do some time back but gave up as I couldn’t seem to get it to work correctly, maybe someone here with more experience could help me out?
I was trying to use the batch converter to convert my dad’s FLAC library to MP3 to put on an SD card to work in a vehicle (his one vehicle doesn’t work with FLAC). I wanted to have a complete separate set of files as I don’t want to loose the original FLAC version that he uses at home. I forget the specific details now as I was trying to do this years back, but no matter what I tried I couldn’t get it to rip the new files in the same sort of organization as the originals, ie artist folder, album folder & then tracks. I would have thought this should be pretty straight forward but it didn’t seem to be the case, not sure what I was missing/doing wrong?
limited experience here, but think you can use batch convert pointed to the drive (SD card) to convert everything to MP3 - then run PerfectTunes to update all the metadata / info
That’s what i was able to do last night - from aiff to FLAC
Just make a full copy in a location of your choice, convert to MP3 with the delete source option.
MP3 takes the CD standard 44.1 kHz file and applies a lossy compression algorithm that reduces the file size by partial discarding of data. The theory is that by reducing specific components of data the sound effects of the missing components is undetectable. (???)
MP3 max bit rate is 320 kbps (compared to CD at 1411.2 kbps.
MP3 highest frequency potential is 16kHz, CD is 21kHz
I do not understand your reply to me.
My post was to daren_p who wanted to have MP3s to play in the car.
Other than the wav format used by Naim is totally standard … I remember dissecting them back in the ripper war years. The only observation is that Naim don’t use either of the meta data options that WAV RIFF files support by standard (Group Info) or defacto standard (id3). These chunk IDs are totally optional in the WAV standard. But as we have said Naim store the meta data in a separate database, and make it available for use by the UPnP server when streaming the media.
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Sorry my bad, adding irrelivant info
I was just pointing out what MP3 is compared to LPCM
Thanks for the reply, I never thought to give this a try, that might do the trick. I tried everything I could think of with changing Output to, or folder, or Dynamic strings & couldn’t seem to duplicate the same folder tree I was starting with, in a different location.
@Mike-B , yes I would have left it FLAC uncompressed & actually that’s what I put on the SD card first, only to find out after the car system didn’t recognize any files that it wouldn’t work with FLAC. So unfortunately highest quality MP3 is what it needs to be. Though he is far from an audiophile & it’s just in the auto, so it will do the trick 
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In your case, I suspect that SongKong might help - I understand that it’s got a feature that can decode the Naim external-file metadata, and fix metadata for you.
Otherwise, you’ll have a bit of a manual job doing the file/folder-name to metadata conversion, which will take some time (depending on how many albums you have ripped)
