Those of us with cloth ears are better off! Satisfaction comes cheaper, and no tweaking urges.
So Asset is, as David says, your UPnP server. If you choose to store your music files in FLAC, it can send them to the NDS as WAV. Or you can just store WAVs. They will use more storage space, but if you have enough capacity, no need to worry.
@ChrisSU. Thanks for the clarification. And yes, I have the storage space, so Iāll just rip into WAV format.
In the next few days Iāll figure out the metadata/artwork thing. Iāll run a few test rips to get it where I want it. I figure the classical will be the challenge.
So far the Wav and Flac rips have been showing up in the Naim App with the songs/movements out of order, so Iāll have to figure that out as well.
I advise to think again. If you are getting a NAS , I think you were considering a Synology, and will be using Asset UPnP or Minimserver, then you have the transcode function. This means FLAC or any other file format you have, can be played as WAV.
Add to that, some high res download vendors do not supply WAV & unless you convert, you will end up with a mixture. OK no big deal, as transcode fixes that, but it a hassle & untidy.
I used to be all WAV, but recently with a long term pending future storage problem, l bit the bullet & converted all to FLAC.
Itās just easier.
I was all WAV as it sounded (to me) better than even transcoded FLAC; that may have been because my QNAP NAS was on the same switch as my streamer. Who knows.
Now I use Roon itās all FLAC and the Roon Core is a long way from my streamer.
I tried very hard to hear a difference between WAV & transcoded FLAC when deciding on more HDD capacity or batch convert to FLAC.
NDX with Synology & Asset UPnP on all wired ethernet via a LAN switch, we listened to a playlist mix of preselected tracks of 16/44 to 24/192. We concluded there was next to no difference, but there is a real but not huge difference with straight FLAC compared to WAV.
Itās worth checking if only to avoid Audiophile Paranoia
And of course itās free to do.
Thank you Mike. Storing flac, and playing wav, makes a lot of sense from what you say.
Chris was alluding to that method as well, but I just wasnāt picking up on the overall ease of it
I appreciate your time setting me straight, as Iām always looking for the simplest and most logical setup.
Yes, once you have set your server to transcode on playback it just gets on with it. Still, if you have started ripping to WAV, you can convert to FLAC later if you change your mind.
Not all servers will transcode āon the flyā but certainly Asset, Minimserver and the old Naim servers can.
It doesnāt make much sense to rip to WAV given the options available for transcoding. AIFF of FLAC if you donāt have space.
Just to repeat whatās already been said by others, Iāve always imagined that I could discern a difference between FLAC and WAV, so when I recently had my ageing HDX convert everything to FLAC, and then set it to transcode to WAV for playback, I canāt hear any difference whatsoever between this and the original WAV files.
I found the same, and wouldnāt expect anything else. If the streamer gets WAV, it has no idea whether it was transcoded from another format years ago as a one-off, or seconds ago by the server.
If you have much classical Music, Iād seriously consider Minimserver, which was designed by Simon Nash with classical specifically in mind. It does take more investment in time and effort to get to grips with and some never get there, but there is a very helpful and friendly forum if you encounter difficulties.
Also, when editing metadata, it really does pay off to come up with a consistent scheme, which is tailored to your musical interests and the server you are using. Again, thereās lots on this in the various forums. Getting it right at the start can save a lot of frustration later.
Roger
Thank you for the insight, Roger. Iāll take my time on this then, and try both servers, and play with the metadata organization before I commit.
Sounds like it will be worth the effort.
Dave
Iāve come late to this discussion so perhaps someone has already said what I am going to. I rip to FLAC because I found it handles the metadata more easily. But I did find a very slight difference in quality between compressed FLAC and WAV, with WAV being just that fraction better. Marginal, but there. But ripping with dBPowerAmp you can select the degree of FLAC compression, so now depending on what I am ripping I either use uncompressed FLAC (identical in file size to WAV and identical in sound) or compressed FLAC. Things I know I am going to listen to a lot, or really high quaity modern recordings, Iāll rip in uncompressed FLAC, other stuff or older recordings that are not that hot sound-wise to start with, Iāll rip compressed to save space.
Saying that then, is there any difference in the degree of compression? I always select number ā4ā which is the default offered in the rip tool (MM4) and Iāve never considered if this is the best setting or not.
What media server & server software do you have?
The popular NAS & UPnP software have transcoding (play FLAC as WAV) so you can store FLAC with its space saving benefit & play as WAV.
Also when buying downloads in 24 bit FLAC from the on line vendors they come compressed, so do you intend to uncompressed these.
The media server software uncompresses the FLAC stream & thatās sent as a LPCM to your player, so there is no point in storing uncompressed FLAC as your software is ready to uncompress for you.
Amazon does but do Qobuz?
I havenāt checked the compression but the file sizes are large so I assumed they were either uncompressed or just gap closing compression.
All the vendors I use have compressed FLAC, Qobuz, HDTracks, HiResAudio, etc., I havenāt found one that doesnāt
I select 5 which is the default on dBPowerAmp. I guess that as you move to less and less compression you get closer to WAV. That said, the difference between compressed FLAC and WAV is very small. But I did a blind test with one track ripped as WAV, uncompressed FLAC, and level 5 compression FLAC, and my wife, who didnāt know which track was which, felt that she couldnāt distinguish between WAV and uncompressed FLAC, but both were slightly sharper than compressed FLAC.