Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

[garym]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi garym, thank you for bringing this to my attention, I had never heard of it before (just shows you how far back I am) I have since done some googling on it and it basically appears a great little device.
Since you are a user of it this makes you the target of some questions. My Music setup is quite simple, as I had mentioned it is stored on a external hard drive in 16 different categories with each category in its own folder.
Combined there are some 360 albums (so far) comprising of around 4500 tracks of music.

What are your questions?

[Gitfinger]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

And now $AU265 delivered, at logitechshop.com.au

[Gitfinger]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi and thank you garym, yes makes you wonder a bit.
...The Logitech Touch is pretty expensive here in Melbourne, Recommended at $540.- hopefully I will be able to snare one up for around half that prize.

$380 at Harris Technology new.

[jtbse]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi, sorry about my slow replies here. Well I have been experimenting with dbpoweramp and I think it does a great job.
A couple of questions I do have, when I change Bit Depth from 24 to 16 the program recommends to apply Dither which one do I use Triangular or Rectangle as I do not know what it actually does.
Spoon, on your early reply to me you warned me to be careful not to overwrite the high quality, I assume that by that you meant that I keep the original HD file and create a new converted flac file.
In my experimenting so far, I can only see my two options of having 24 - 96, or 44.1 - 16.

Dither refers to the addition of somewhat "random" noise to a digital audio signal or file to sonically account for rounding errors (distortion) that can be introduced when converting audio from a higher to a lower bit depth (e.g. 24 to 16).

Defined here: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Dither

Rectangular vs Triangular dither refers to how the how the dither is applied to the signal or file. Rectangular is just a somewhat random application of white noise across all frequencies in the signal. Triangular attempts to "shape" the noise and place it amongst the higher frequencies of the signal where it will be less likely to be audible.

Explained further here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Dither

Basically all very complicated sounding, but the bottom line is just adding some noise (that you won't be able to hear) to the file when you down-convert it, to mask any distortion introduced by the conversion processes. To be quite honest, you're probably not going to be able to hear the difference either way.

[brentano]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi, sorry about my slow replies here. Well I have been experimenting with dbpoweramp and I think it does a great job.
A couple of questions I do have, when I change Bit Depth from 24 to 16 the program recommends to apply Dither which one do I use Triangular or Rectangle as I do not know what it actually does.
Spoon, on your early reply to me you warned me to be careful not to overwrite the high quality, I assume that by that you meant that I keep the original HD file and create a new converted flac file.
In my experimenting so far, I can only see my two options of having 24 - 96, or 44.1 - 16.

[Spoon]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

When you click overwrite, the page should disappear and conversion should start.

[TJJ]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

I've got a similar issue with my SONOS system, it doesn't support 24-bit FLACs either.

I am using the batch converter to convert them to 16-bit using the "Bit Depth" DSP Effect option. That part is pretty straightforward. Since I've only got a couple dozen to convert, I want to just overwrite the 24-bit version with the 16-bit version, but when I get the "Confirm File Replace" dialog box and I click the "Overwrite" button in the lower write, nothing happens. The button changes color and gives the appearance of being active and available, but doesn't seem to enable the overwrite. I've tried every combination of checking the files and single vs. multiple files selection and can't seem to get it to overwrite the original file. Since I've only got a couple dozen it's no big deal, but I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong at the same time.

[garym]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi and thank you garym, yes makes you wonder a bit.
I have been active on German ebay as there are several Squeezebox Touches up for Auction, problem though is, not to many are open for International participation. The Logitech Touch is pretty expensive here in Melbourne, Recommended at $540.- hopefully I will be able to snare one up for around half that prize.
In the meantime I think I have to come back to what was recommended to me here at the beginning, that is convert the HD FLAC to CD quality FLAC.
If anyone will have the patience to explain to me in simple terms how to do that, I would appreciate it very much.

One other question, I have seen several tracks at 192KHz by16 bit, can the touch play that as it is not specified in the specs. Just curious.

ouch. that's expensive (I've paid anywhere from $299 to $199(on sale) directly from Logitech here in the U.S.). The Touch can play up to 24/96. Any 192 file would be automatically downconverted to 24/96 by the touch server software (logitech media server). Although there is a new plugin that someone created for the TOUCH that allows the touch to play 24/192 files without downconverting. (of course, no human being would be able to distinguish a 192 file from a 96 file in a blind test, assuming they are both from the same mastering. that is, some 24/192 files may sound better because the underlying mastering was better on such releases, but if the 24/192 file is downconverted to 24/96, or even 16/44.1, subjects in a double-blind test can NOT ABX the difference in many, many such tests). The 24/192 files are mostly a way to separate audiophools from their money. ;-)

Regarding converting your files, it has something to do with using the DSP bit depth converter, but I'll let someone else chime in on the exact steps, as I've not done this myself.

[brentano]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi and thank you garym, yes makes you wonder a bit.
I have been active on German ebay as there are several Squeezebox Touches up for Auction, problem though is, not to many are open for International participation. The Logitech Touch is pretty expensive here in Melbourne, Recommended at $540.- hopefully I will be able to snare one up for around half that prize.
In the meantime I think I have to come back to what was recommended to me here at the beginning, that is convert the HD FLAC to CD quality FLAC.
If anyone will have the patience to explain to me in simple terms how to do that, I would appreciate it very much.

One other question, I have seen several tracks at 192KHz by16 bit, can the touch play that as it is not specified in the specs. Just curious.

[garym]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi, I have received the reply from Yamaha, here is it:


"The RX-V2065 will only officially support CD quality audio in the FLAC format being 16 bit 44.1 kHz. Anything above this can not be played back either at all or reliably so is not officially supported. Given the speed restrictions on the USB format you may also benefit from using the network connection for your FLAC playback either from a PC or NAS drive."

What do you suggest.

replace the Yamaha or move to a SqueezeBox Touch, connected to the Yamaha. It handles 24/96 FLAC files natively.... (Plus, it is pretty clear that they don't understand what they are talking about if they think "speed restrictions" of the USB format keep you from playing hi-rez files).

[brentano]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Hi, I have received the reply from Yamaha, here is it:


"The RX-V2065 will only officially support CD quality audio in the FLAC format being 16 bit 44.1 kHz. Anything above this can not be played back either at all or reliably so is not officially supported. Given the speed restrictions on the USB format you may also benefit from using the network connection for your FLAC playback either from a PC or NAS drive."

What do you suggest.

[brentano]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Thank you garym, very much appreciated. Happy Easter to you and your Family.

[garym]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

no problem. A few years ago the SB stuff seemed foreign to me and I had no clue what folks were talking about. A bit of a learning curve, but then once I got past that, all was pretty easy. My wife who hates technology, loves the stuff, because for her, she picks up a controller, chooses what she wants (an album, an internet radio, a sirusXM station, etc.), hits play, and she has music automatically in all the rooms she wants it in.

feel free to PM me here or at forums.slimdevices. Same username over there....

[brentano]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

WOW, thank you very much for filling me in, in such great detail. I can see all the advantages a Squeezebox can provide.
I will wait for the reply from Yamaha before I will move on any further. Assuming that the reply from Yamaha would be negative, I know now what to do to achieve what I desire.
If you have no objections I might send you a PM for additional advice further down the track.
I have been browsing at slimdevices and will visit again much info to study.

[garym]

Re: Converting HD Tracks to FLAC

Be careful what you read on general sites about the SqueezeBox (SB) players. There is a lot of misinformation and/or missunderstanding about how these things work. I have over 70,000 mostly FLAC files and it all works well. I can set the playlist length to whatever I want in SETTINGS, but even better, I can setup "dynamic playlists" that will continuously feed 10 songs at a time to my active playlist from a longer playlist (or from all songs, certain genres, etc.).

I have many SB players (two different houses both setup with multiroom audio). The players can be WIFI or ethernet connected. Each player has digtial out (s/pdif or optical) and anallog. And all three outs are "on" at the same time. In each location, the files are stored (and served from) a single headless (no monitor or keyboard) computer setup in the back cabinet out of the way next to router). On this computer (in my case a Vortexbox Appliance (VBA), but you can use any old windows machine, MAc, linux, etc. And it can just be your regular home computer that you use for other stuff....I prefer to have the VBA doing just my serving of music. The program logitech music server (LMS) (formally SqueezeBoxServer or SqueezeCenter) is the database that keeps track of your music, etc. This is much more powerful and flexible than a typical DLNA/upnp music server.

It is true that the TOUCH has a built in "server" (and can play from attached USB drive, SD card ,etc.) But this is a somewhat limited approach and may or may not work. My brother uses the built in server with a 1TB USB drive attached to the TOUCH with about 50,000 mp3 files and it works fine. But the TOUCH seems picky about what sort of USB attached drive, etc. None of these problems exist with the full LMS running on a computer.

Essentially, with the SB setup, you have 3 choices:

1. mysqueezebox.com (LMS "in the cloud"). You don't need a local computer for this, but you can't play your own music. You can get internet radio, various services (pandora, MOG, spotify, rhapsody, siriusXM, etc.).
2. local full LMS. running on almost any old computer. You still need a mysqueezebox.com account (credentials) to enter into LMS to access services. But now you get your own music as well.
3. "tinyLMS" inside the TOUCH. Doesn't allow for all the "plugins" that can make things better/more useable and is a little finicky.

I can play different things in different rooms (at the same time) or perfectly sync two or more players to play the same thing. I can control all this from my laptop, from any other computer on my local network, from my iphone, from my ipad, or from the TOUCH itself.

There is a very active and helpful user community at:
forums.slimdevices.com

If you continue to be interested in this option, you should read a bit over there and post any further questions you have on that forum since this has become off topic for dbpa. (and ignore all the threads on mods (software and hardware) for the TOUCH unless you're the type of person that thinks $5,000 USB cables change your audio or you like to put magic rocks on top of your amp (i.e., audiophool nonsense).

My setup is as follows:

Location 1: VB Appliance 6TB (1.10) > LMS 7.7.1 > Transporter, Touch, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio)
Location 2: VB Appliance 3TB (2.0) > LMS 7.7.1 > Touch > Benchmark DAC I, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio)
Office: Win7(64) > LMS 7.7.1 > SqueezePlay
Retired: SB3, Duet Receiver
Controllers: iPhone4S (iPeng), iPad2 (iPengHD & SqueezePad), CONTROLLER, or SqueezePlay 7.7 on Win7(64) laptop
Ripping (FLAC) - dbpoweramp, Additional Tagging - mp3tag