That was after taking out the metadata.
And as I said, I don’t know what cmp compares - yes if it compares the entire file bit for bit, but I don’t know if it does that - there are other measures as well, such as checksum, which does not necessarily mean bit-identical. Perhaps someone with knowledge of cmp can advise.
But this is certainly useful in advancing knowledge.
Yes no metadata on any of the files. cmp compates files and if a report is not generated they are the same as I understand it. Perhaps we need another method.
No, “cmp” is fine. If A and B are “cmp” identical and you replay A and B (and not something obtained from A and B after adding metadata), then the only reasons why they can sound differently are external to the files. It could be that the replay system is sensitive to file name, order or replay, etc. There are many more possibilities …
Thanks for reporting! I am travelling now but I should be able to come back to this thread in the next days or, at the latest, on Sunday. Thanks again, nbpf
Re-reading your report, it appears the listening tests were on those stripped files, not on the originals with metadata, is that correct?
Meanwhile having looked at what cmp does, I confirm that as nbpf says it confirms that the two files have no differences byte for byte - so on that basis tghe two are identical. However, if I understand correctly, the two stripped files looked slightly different when analysed with Audacity. That does not make sense to me - one tool says they are the same, another finds that the extracted audio is different, which is consistent with the listening tests.
There is something going on here that needs a an expert in digital audio data - I think it is worthy of a new thread to catch people’s attention, so I’ll start one.
Thanks for all the interest in what we tried. Over to others on the new thread to see what they can come up with. What ever the reasons we are still realy enjoying the Melco!
I have (perhaps foolishly) borrowed a D100 from Cloney Audio to check this out. All of my 2000+ rips originated in a Unitiserve, which I acquired in 2013. The rips were stated to be “bit perfect”, of course.
So far only one of the four CD’s which I have ripped has shown up in Roon, but I can certainly come to the same conclusion as DB. The noise floor is lower and the sound is more musical. I am going to struggle about whether the difference is big enough to undertake a complete ‘Re-rip’, something I never expected to have to contemplate!
Wait to see if a cause is identified in the “calling all experts on digital music data” thread, which conceivably could enable a bulk file recode or similar to ‘upgrade’ all easily, rather than re-ripping. Or maybe not.
To add to this, the D100 ripper took 10 minutes to do The Best of Prefab Sprout. It still hasn’t turned up in Roon (4 hours later!), so I can’t tell you how it sounds.
I would be very wary of a ‘bulk recode’, even if it were a possibility, which I doubt.
My money is on some kind of ‘analogue effect’ in the ripping process, which is not measurable in the file per se, but manifests itself on replay.
I’m currently listening to Pentangle’s “Basket of Light” vía the D100 rip, and it’s better than I’ve ever heard it. Looks like a long re-rip task ahead…
This hobby constantly surprises!
Are you able to compare the rips, pc vs melco? Peter says , after the test, that they are identical. But apparently the test is not enough accurate…
Sounds like Roon is not getting updates from your Melco. NAS devices do not alway communicate updates to other devices . I got this when using QNA NAS connected to Roon for my music Disappeared when i changed to having it local to the Roon server. Maybe set your library to check more often or force it to refresh.
Not possible. (More in the other thread)
Whatever…
I know what I am hearing, despite my reluctance to accept it…
I don’t understand what you are suggesting. What should I do?
Sorry, I should have said that in Roon it says that it is looking for library changes in real time.
That hasn’t been said. The mystery is what is causing a difference if the rips are identical, and it is relevant to ask if the test is foolproof. It is also relevant to ask if the listening tests were foolproof, and if not blind that is not a certainty. As for Audacity, the description was a bit vague. It all could do with more replication, using several different tracks, and ideally sharing the metadara stripped rips for others to duplicate the rests and report.
You where saying that what you ripped was not showing up in Roon after 4 hours. I was just suggesting reasons as to why.
Others really need to have access to sample files as they where ripped no meddling afterwards and then listen and see if they do in fact sound different. They should be provided identical in name, then if they find them different investigate them further by what means they have available and to verify if they are identical (bitwise or not) if they do sound different they cannot be.