Audiophile friendly: Will this work for an audiophile who wants to store and play all his (classical) CDs in FLAC or raw lossless state on the server?
1116543
I burn DVD's to mine and stream them across a wireless network to my TV, so I would imagine even the biggest audio stream would have no problem.
808696
I disagree. I have purchased 24bit music from HDTracks and found that the sound quality was inferior to the same track ripped to FLAC from a CD. I bought Rush "Spirit of Radio" from HDTracks and wound up going back to the FLAC versions I ripped from my 1987 release of Moving Pictures. To assume that just because some music is superior because it was remastered to 24bit will leave you with less money - believe me, I'm a victim. If you have some CD's from the mid-80's to around 1992 you're better off (IMO) ripping them with foobar2000 or EAC to FLAC, WAV, or ALAC. Before buying a 24bit HD version do comparisons of the dynamic range of the original cd against the remaster/rerelease on dr(dot)loudness-war(dot)info. I've actually started trolling yard sales for early CD releases for this very reason, I think you'll be happy you did - I know your wallet will be.
331007
"Most music" is still on CD. You can rip to any format you want--and OGG sounds better, and of course is completely free. There are dozens of other manufacturers who support OGG. Why wouldn't I just look there instead of being coerced into ripping in an inferior format?
2249148
The Gemini Doctor himself says that you need a CD player as an audio source.... what is this world coming to? You're actually going to need a full blown record player as a source, as digital is for losers. Digital isn't really for losers, it just seems like there's no reason to get an analog amp if you're going to use a digital source. Generally analog people don't like their signal being converted back and forth and losing some of that sweet, sweet warmth to the digital mittleman. Sure you could use a .flac recording that's "lossless" but is it really? I'd rather not find out and spin the black circle when I want a really rich music listening experience and leave that .mp3 malarky for when I'm on the go. From here on out you won't find me without my record player in my place of residence. Anyway, you're going to need 1) a record player 2) records to play on that record player 3) speakers or headphones 4) this device or something that accomplishes the same task
2218005
I'll plug in my external hard drive and see. My only concern would be the slower USB 2.0 port. I have a 3 terabyte drive inside the AIOS and I play Blu-ray iso files all the time. I'll rip a disk to folders instead and put it on the portable drive that will connect via the front USB port. I'm copying a set of Blu-ray files to the player today, so I'll see how well it works versus .iso.
1048316
I've tested it on several sound-playing apps on the unit, and none of them play FLACs. However, it may be that I simply don't have the proper application.
751662
No, by the technical specifications can used more like a media server, I use it for streaming audio, video (mkv) and ISO SACD or DVD Audio
406010
ariadne is absolutely correct here.For lower bitrates, wma is generally better than mp3At higher bitrates, mp3 is generally better than mp3.Ogg is better at both but sadly, the zen doesn't support ogg.Bladeenc mp3 encoder (free software, runs from the command line) has almost the exact same quality as the original CD at 320kb/s
1553420
That sounds good. I am in the process of reripping the CDs that are WMA's - I knew the Ipod wouldn't play them, and I was worried about the sound quality with converted files. Thanks for the reply!
1663141
I use Senn PC360 and have noticed a difference when gaming and recording with Audacity, escpecially in the analog mic input. Using lossless audio is where this card will really shine, so make sure your music library is encoded with ALAC or FLAC, and maybe try HD Tracks for some higher-than-CD quality music!
2251974
The only way to rip SACD has been using a PS3 with YellowDog Linux. Only the early PS3 "fat" systems could boot linux separately, and only those have SACD playback. I bounced by a web site that was selling a DSD DAC and advertising SACD ripping, so you can go that route if you choose. I've read that the AK120 will play SACD when placed on the drive, but please double-check before purchase.DSD to PCM would not be a bit-perfect conversion (it's a re-encode), and would depend quite heavily on the quality of the conversion algorithms, plus the number of converters are limited. Apparently NuForce DACs now (falsely) advertise "DSD Playback over USB" but it's via Fubar 2000 pre-converting the DSD to PCM. The only way to rip SACD has been using a PS3 with YellowDog Linux. Only the early PS3 "fat" systems could boot linux separately, and only those have SACD playback. I bounced by a web site that was selling a DSD DAC and advertising SACD ripping, so you can go that route if you choose. I've read that the AK120 will play SACD when placed on the drive, but please double-check before purchase.DSD to PCM would not be a bit-perfect conversion (it's a re-encode), and would depend quite heavily on the quality of the conversion algorithms, plus the number of converters are... » Read More The only way to rip SACD has been using a PS3 with YellowDog Linux. Only the early PS3 "fat" systems could boot linux separately, and only those have SACD playback. I bounced by a web site that was selling a DSD DAC and advertising SACD ripping, so you can go that route if you choose. I've read that the AK120 will play SACD when placed on the drive, but please double-check before purchase.DSD to PCM would not be a bit-perfect conversion (it's a re-encode), and would depend quite heavily on the quality of the conversion algorithms, plus the number of converters are limited. Apparently NuForce DACs now (falsely) advertise "DSD Playback over USB" but it's via Fubar 2000 pre-converting the DSD to PCM. « Show Less
1485873
The unit's display does not show any information besides the audio source and a equalizer info. I don't think it can be hacked to display file information. Can't tell you anything about external HD or flac.
808698
I agree with K.Mitchell. I also bought a couple of albums at 192kHz/24bit and was extremely disappointed when I A/B them against files that were ripped from my CDs. Total waste of money I actually deleted the files.
263794
If you use FLAC files, gapless play is possible. There is definitely a gap when playing back MP3s and other compressed formats.
894639
Hi Mr.Scheuerman, truth is i don't know,what I do know is why rip high quality vynil to mp3 format? There are better machines to do this depending on your budget, this is just me,& I'm sure you'll find what you needSincerely Heriberto
532009
you can use any recordable disks as far as ive never had one type or another fail but i did find a problem with my one the recorder i mean. it is sposed to sense when a song is finished by the way you set it up i cant get mine to auyo detect that so i have to stop and start the recorgings quicklybetween songs so that ill have a cd with more than just one large song on it
1896181
I am not sure about lossless. Sounds fantastic however. No detectable latency. See my other comments too. Low end was a problem they are working on. I am not sure they have fixed it yet. Without a sub, you'll probably not notice.