Dear original poster - a few myths and mis-understandings I think in the replies you have might have read (I do love it so when someone says FLAC might 'sound' different from say WAV or indeed anything :-)
1) WAV files can contain metadata, it's just that nobody much puts it there so you will be hard pushed to find software that reads it - not a 'standard' implementation like MP3 - incidentally AIFF does also support metadata and this is read by at least iTunes and Slimserver (I am transcoding to AIFF from WAV as it seems iTunes can read the tags - handy if I somehow delete my iTunes library file and want to re-import - like I did a couple of weeks ago!!! Don't even ask!:) 2) Yes I have conducted a blind test (recently as wanted to be sure before choosing AIFF to transcode to for the reasons above), and yes I can hear the difference between my SB3 decoding WAV/AIFF, FLAC and the Apple Lossless file formats I tried. AIFF and WAV both using built-in player decoding were identical, ALAC was discernibly different whether streamed as WAV or FLAC (down to Quicktime decoding on the server?) and I managed to identify this format 4 out of 5 times using random setting and identically named files (on deciding I could hear a difference I would open my eyes and right arrow to the file format for confirmation, then flick on several files to avoid 'knowing' where in the 'random' playlist I might be and have another go!). FLAC was harder to differentiate, but 3 out of 5 got me a hit. What this means who knows (just the extra digital activity on the SB player interfering with my poor sensitive preamp analogue circuits!?) I did get bored after an hour or so - but at least the ears are still working reasonably well after 40 odd years of listening to hi-fi! 3)One poster says claiming to hear a difference is "a result of a simple inability by some people to fathom that there could such a thing as mathematically lossless compression" hmm, a wee bit condescending that but missing the point a bit - we are not discussing lossless compression and it's mathematical efficiency (thank God!), but rather if in this context, with this network situation, we can hear a difference in the result that emanates from our 'speakers. If anyone is thinking that FLAC or ZIP or TIFF or any other lossless file compression technique is missing bits when it puts it back together then our music and pictures are in trouble big time in this modern digital world! 4) Engineers, please don't get angry, anger is a defence mechanism. You don't need to defend your measurements or understanding of this principle. Lossless compression works great - it does what it says on the tin, it isn't complicated, the concept is really very logical when you start talking in bits and bytes, and furthermore even if I can hear a difference in the execution of the decompression in this instance, that difference doesn't effect my files, they are stored, safe, intact and I am sure could be played elsewhere in a different system situation with no discernible difference on the result to anyone's ears. Anyway - as the engineers don't trust the audiophile's ears (seeing the huge lump of wax just extracted from my left ear yesterday afternoon I am amazed my own small test worked at all!) then I have a suggestion. What we need is a soundproof chamber, and actually measure with microphones what comes out of the speakers in both formats...who's up for that :-) -- Timbo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Timbo's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=933 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=38258 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
