New Mac User

[sawheaton]

I'm about to purchase dBpoweramp for Mac but have a few questions. I only have a MacBook Pro so will be using it and a Pioneer Blu-ray drive to rip about 1,000 CD's. I'd like to digitize all my CD's and store them on a MyCloud 4TB so am not worried about space but do want to get everything done as best possible in a first attempt. I'm thinking of ripping .aiff, .flac. and .alac files of everything.
- The .aiff because I want one backup copy that isn't compressed.
- The .flac because it seems to be the most widely used and best at incorporating metadata.
- The .alac because I use a MacBook Pro with iTunes and an iPhone.
I'm thinking I can copy the .alac or .flac files to a USB drive for use in my car.

So my question is will the Mac version of dBpoweramp rip once and save 3 formats to my MyCloud? It seems the batch converter isn't available for Mac so if I can only do one or two formats in the first pass is there an alternate suggestion for converting either the .aiff or .flac to .alac? Finally, would it be best to batch convert from .flac to .alac since the .flac is most comprehensive with metadata or does dBpoweramp somehow pick up metadata again (and include any choices/updates I've made to my other formats)? Guidance would be appreciated and if I'm thinking of going about this all the wrong way then please just say.

[Spoon]

Re: New Mac User

The Mac version comes with 'Multi-Encoder' which enables multiple formats to be created at the same time.

[audiodoc1]

Re: New Mac User

I am in exactly the same boat and want to make sure I am on the right track.
We just listened to WAV files compared to FLAC through Foobar2000, and with a good quality DAC in the playback loop the WAV files were clearly superior in reproducing music.
So I am considering saving WAV files along with FLAC and possibly ALAC for Lightening DS/Sonos/Airplay rendering and control.
I would prefer using the WAV files for my main listening setup.
Two questions:
What metadata support, if any, does dbpoweramp provide for WAV?
Is it practical to rip three simultaneous formats with dbpoweramp?

[Spoon]

Re: New Mac User

dBpoweramp writes ID3 chunk, and an older INFO LIST tag. Foobar I think will read both.

Besides hard disc space, I not see any issues.

[evasv]

Re: New Mac User

Not an answer, merely a reflection on your problem:

Flac is lossless so you can convert it from wav to flac and back to wav and have back the exact same file. So if you hear any difference between the two formats, the fault lies in the software or hardware in the line from your Mac to your DAC.

If you happen to connect to the DAC via USB, it can be problematic (jitter, I think, but there are solutions = good DACs and drivers for USB). But that's just an idea, the fault could be somewhere else of course.

Bottom line is that if you have the right hardware/software and set it up properly, there is no audible difference between wav and flac.

[audiodoc1]

Re: New Mac User

Not an answer, merely a reflection on your problem:

Flac is lossless so you can convert it from wav to flac and back to wav and have back the exact same file. So if you hear any difference between the two formats, the fault lies in the software or hardware in the line from your Mac to your DAC.

If you happen to connect to the DAC via USB, it can be problematic (jitter, I think, but there are solutions = good DACs and drivers for USB). But that's just an idea, the fault could be somewhere else of course.

Bottom line is that if you have the right hardware/software and set it up properly, there is no audible difference between wav and flac.

Thanks. Yes I know both are termed lossless and can be converted. However there was an unmistakable difference favoring WAV heard by our entire group using the same high end hardware. Perhaps a Foobar anomaly but a significant difference none the less.

[audiodoc1]

Re: New Mac User

dBpoweramp writes ID3 chunk, and an older INFO LIST tag. Foobar I think will read both.

Besides hard disc space, I not see any issues.

Can you elaborate on what the ID3 chunk and INFO LIST tag contain?
Do you know if Lightening DS and Sonos read both?
Sorry to be such a newbie pain!
Thanks.

[Spoon]

Re: New Mac User

Very few programs will read tags from Wave files (there might be only a handful), I do not know the current list of applications, sorry.

[audiodoc1]

Re: New Mac User

Very few programs will read tags from Wave files (there might be only a handful), I do not know the current list of applications, sorry.

Auralic (Lightening DS control program) customer support agrees WAV is more difficult to associate metadata and recommends AIFF.
I will forget about WAV and use AIFF instead for archive along with 44.1 kHz/16 bit FLAC and ALAC following in sawheaton's footsteps.
Hopefully we will have a smooth journey with dbpoweramp.

Thanks for your help !

[audiodoc1]

Re: New Mac User

Not an answer, merely a reflection on your problem:

Flac is lossless so you can convert it from wav to flac and back to wav and have back the exact same file. So if you hear any difference between the two formats, the fault lies in the software or hardware in the line from your Mac to your DAC.

If you happen to connect to the DAC via USB, it can be problematic (jitter, I think, but there are solutions = good DACs and drivers for USB). But that's just an idea, the fault could be somewhere else of course.

Bottom line is that if you have the right hardware/software and set it up properly, there is no audible difference between wav and flac.

Here's confirmation and a better possible explanation than mine (RFI) from Vincent Kars "The Well Tempered Computer":

In a forum audible difference between WAV and FLAC was reported. Now this sounds highly unlikely. Both formats are lossless so when played should be identical.
The explanation was that because FLAC is lossless compression and WAV is not compressed, the extra system power needed to uncompressing FLAC has influence on the performance of the sound card.

This might be caused by RFI, it might also be a matter of fluctuations in voltage but somehow the sound quality was said to be different.

Claims that sound quality is depended on system load are made often.
It looks like that the average soundcard is very susceptible to system load.
As they are supposed to be used inside a PC one might argue that most of them are not up to their job.