I wasn’t sure if my local streaming was better than RP or Qobuz files and I wasn’t usually sure I had the same mastered files for comparison. So I signed up for Qobuz sublime and bought about 30 hi res files for download. My local streams definitely sound better than cloud streams when I have the same files.
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Yes that is the best check. MD5 checksums are NOT effective from a SQ perspective as the meta data can change, which would lead to a different checksum, but the encoding could be identical
I did the checksums on the decoded WAV from the two differently-sized FLACs and they were the same. It was clear that the FLACs were different because of the different sizes
Hi @james_n, I admit to being a bit lost in this discussion. But as I have an NDX2 as well and use Roon, were you suggesting that this DSD thing should be enabled? I use an Uniti Core and stream with Qobuz and Tidal. I’ve never played with any of the Roon settings, basically as it’s all a bit beyond me….
That’s the problem I have with Roon I think it complicates things, adds another level that I just don’t think I need. I’m sure there’s many who swear by it. I had it on trail once and all I did was swear at it. 
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I quite like the Roon interface and app, it’s much cleaner than the Naim app and the integration of your local and on-line libraries is really good. But the discussion about DSD settings has me stumped. I like click and go!
But when I go back to the Naim, Tidal and Qobuz apps, I find them pretty poor compared to the Roon one…
Funny I struggled cause it found music everywhere and just double stuff up, I found it very confusing but I’m sure it was operator error.
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Hi Mike - I don’t use DSD myself. I was just responding to the OP not finding a particular option for his Roon endpoint and posted a couple of screenshots to show the NDX2 could support that particular option.
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Ah thanks. Maybe @frenchrooster can clarify things - should we be using DSD on a Naim steamer through Roon?
Sure, but remember depending on how you transcode FLAC to wav, the metadata is converted into the wav… so non audio based variables are still potentially introduced.
My point being MD5 checksums in multipart files (RIFF) is inherently unreliable if you are looking to use the MD5 aggregate checksum to validate an internal part of the file such as the audio data. Can lead to a false negative.
Sure you can deconstruct the files and rebuild only using the sampled audio encoded data. But also remember there are two valid ways of wav file RIFF constructs… canonical and extended, both of those would yield different MD5 hashes for the identical audio and metadata.
However as per the post above, I feel the subtraction method from an audio perspective is the most reliable and quickest overall using readily available and free software.
The method I have used for wav file, is to deconstruct the DATA chunk with a file debugger to validate each encoded PCM byte and confirm chunk length. Takes a little time with specific software but assuming the wav file uses the same PCM endian encoding I found was totally reliable.
I used this method back in the day when ripping became popular for the many… and debates raged on the ‘accuracy’ of different CD rippers. (And other than offset I found no difference across a multitude of cheap and expensive, software and hardware rippers on un damaged discs)
Roon have changed how multiple versions are displayed, so it’s less confusing for the operators now.
Back to the OP, I’ve compared a CD rip (WAV) from my Core to the NDX2 versus a Qobuz 44.1/24 FLAC and found them pretty equal in my system. I really need to compare a Qobuz 44.1/24 download to the Core verse a 44.1/24 internet stream.
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Not when using flac --decode as far as I can tell. Anyways, for the purposes above, I think we can exclude the possibility that two flacs of vastly different size and from different sources decoded into two wavs with the same sha256sum just because their metadata happened to end up in the respective wavs in just the perfect way.
Otherwise, yes, substracting them would have been easier and faster.
Yep it is depending on the transcoder used… on quality transcoders you can also often control what wav meta data constructs you use when converting from FLAC to wav. Used to do this a lot.
Sure the positive in your use case is statistically extremely likely… but your method has a greater probability of providing a false negative. 
Sure. The upside was that it made me find out on the way why it was that the larger flac had the nearly same size as the wav, i.e. dbPoweramp’s no-compression encoder implementation. After the subtraction resulting in zero, I may not have bothered 
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Why me Mike ? I have no idea. Don’t have Roon. All DSD I have sound dull through my Nds.
Naim streamers and the nDAC convert DSD to PCM - this is to provide compatibility for those with native DSD files.
They do a good job though 
Indeed calculating the MD5 digest for the file, e.g. md5sum music.flac, could change but using the --show-md5sum option for metaflac, e.g. metaflac --show-md5sum music.flac, gives the same answer as converting the flac to PCM audio and calculating the MD5 of that… so different flac encodings of identical audio (or different metadata) would show the same digest.
Technically speaking, the MD5 is metadata placed there by the encoder, so can be used to check for corrupted audio, rather than calculated on request: flac --test music.flac will decode and check the MD5 matches. I use the MD5 in a script that maintains a lossy mirror of my music (for the car / phone) and only re-encode the audio if the MD5 has changed (otherwise it just updates any metadata).
Sure for the FLAC element… but as per my point above it’s what you compare to… a wav file is not a PCM stream…. but good stuff.
Hi Mike,I never used Roon when I had any of my Naim streamers,so always used the Naim App. Yesterday I was browsing the Audioshark forum,and the guy who runs the site,and has access to all the high end gear you can think of said Roon just sucks the life out of the music on his ND555 with twin 555’s on it.
He said “the Naim App sounds Sooooooo much better”.
This guy has access to the best Aurender servers,Taiko Extreme,etc.,so I tend to believe him.
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