Poor quality

[Gary's]

Hi all,I am new to this and looking for advice. I have been streaming music via FLAC for a couple of years using a mac computer and 4media Convertors to rip CDs to flac. I have got rid of the mac recently and replaced it with a PC. I have on trial the dbpoweramp convertor but I am finding that the quality is not as good as I had before ie sound not as smooth and a bit of hiss. I have set the controls as follows lossless levels 5. Ripping method secure. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[garym]

Re: Poor quality

Hi all,I am new to this and looking for advice. I have been streaming music via FLAC for a couple of years using a mac computer and 4media Convertors to rip CDs to flac. I have got rid of the mac recently and replaced it with a PC. I have on trial the dbpoweramp convertor but I am finding that the quality is not as good as I had before ie sound not as smooth and a bit of hiss. I have set the controls as follows lossless levels 5. Ripping method secure. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

something is wrong with your playback chain. A bit perfect FLAC rip is what it is. Different FLAC rips don't sound "less smooth" or with a "bit of hiss". This would all come from the PLAYER not the ripper. These changes you've noticed certainly could come from a different player/soundcard. What has changed in that regard in your setup. Were you playing via the Mac before and now via the PC. These have different soundcards and possibly you're using different speakers. Soundcard and speakers can certainly change the sound of playback. Also, have you checked all your audio settings in the PC.

Do you play these files on other players (something other than your computer, eg a Sonos or Squeeezebox or uPnP player on a TV?). If so, you can compare on something else.

[Gary's]

Re: Poor quality

something is wrong with your playback chain. A bit perfect FLAC rip is what it is. Different FLAC rips don't sound "less smooth" or with a "bit of hiss". This would all come from the PLAYER not the ripper. These changes you've noticed certainly could come from a different player/soundcard. What has changed in that regard in your setup. Were you playing via the Mac before and now via the PC. These have different soundcards and possibly you're using different speakers. Soundcard and speakers can certainly change the sound of playback. Also, have you checked all your audio settings in the PC.

Do you play these files on other players (something other than your computer, eg a Sonos or Squeeezebox or uPnP player on a TV?). If so, you can compare on something else.

Thanks for the reply. I use the PC only to rip the cd to flac and then store it on a NAS drive and play it through a linn streaming system. The only change I have made is going from Mac to PC and from 4media convertor to dbpoweramp.

[garym]

Re: Poor quality

Thanks for the reply. I use the PC only to rip the cd to flac and then store it on a NAS drive and play it through a linn streaming system. The only change I have made is going from Mac to PC and from 4media convertor to dbpoweramp.

hmmm. Very odd. A FLAC files is a FLAC file, and if ripped properly, it is bit perfect back to any other FLAC file of the same ripped CD. To be sure you're using a perfect FLAC rip, you should use a file that in dbpa shows was ripped with an ACCURATERIP match. This way you can be sure that the file is exact compared back to other's rips of the same CD. Something may be wrong, but it is not because dbpa is producing "lower quality" FLAC rips. There is no such thing. They are either bitperfect matches or not. There is no subtle sound quality difference possible. The ACCURATERIP match is particularly useful because it compares the audio stream from your rip to maybe 100s of others who ripped the same CD (but different physical copy) on different computers using different drives. So the odds of a match like that with error is in the trillions to one.

edit: you might also try a blind test (at least single blind) to make sure you're not imagining things (it happens a lot to audio folks comparing new components!). For example, take some FLAC files you previously ripped, create some new FLAC version by ripping same CDs with dbpa. Load these in a playlist and let someone else select what to play and have you indicate which you think were the better FLAC versions. The person doing this will know which is which, but you won't. So at least it is a single blind test.

[Gary's]

Re: Poor quality

Thanks for your reply I will try the blind test