Play flac media

[chinni]

What are best options to play FLAC files with normalized with track & album gain from my home theater speakers? I am trying to find for the following.

1. Play from computer using foobar2000. Not sure if I can flac files using dbpoweramp. Basically, I guess these should steram to receiver using HTMI.

2. Is there any recommended audio media player that can take hard disk as input and stream to receiver using hdmi.

Appreciate your help.

[Spoon]

Re: Play flac media

I am not sure what you mean by 'take hard disk as input'?

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Play flac media

Sounds like you need a network streaming player. There are lots of options available these days, but I think (Logitech) Squeezebox and Sonos, which have both been around a long time, are still the two of the best choices.

It doesn't really make sense to "use up" an HDMI input on your receiver for an audio-only device like a music streamer (which don't generally have HDMI output anyway), so I'd suggest you use a digital audio connection. Sonos and Squeezebox players always have both optical and digital coax out.

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

I am not sure what you mean by 'take hard disk as input'?

Sorry for confusion. I meant device to support USB port so that I can connect hard drive.

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

Sounds like you need a network streaming player. There are lots of options available these days, but I think (Logitech) Squeezebox and Sonos, which have both been around a long time, are still the two of the best choices.

It doesn't really make sense to "use up" an HDMI input on your receiver for an audio-only device like a music streamer (which don't generally have HDMI output anyway), so I'd suggest you use a digital audio connection. Sonos and Squeezebox players always have both optical and digital coax out.

Thanks for the reply. It makes sense to use only optical cables. I will explore these devices. If these devices have display to browser folders to select track or alburm, it would help not to use theater projector for just listening to music. I already have Ethernet connection.

I am assuming that these players support replay gain that dbpoweramp generates as meta data.

What is the model that I need to buy from sonos? It is little confusing to understand products from this company.

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

I did research and found that sonos 90 connect will be good enough to connect with receiver using Optical/coax. It seems I can use android tablet to select songs to play on the connect. I guess sonos app through tablet connect to sonos using ip address.

Is sonos decoder honoor replay gain generated by dbpoweramp? Does sonos decode flac and send pcm data to receiver? I am trying to make sure the quality of FLAC is not lost through Sonos.

[Spoon]

Re: Play flac media

I do not think the Sonos will use Replaygain.

[garym]

Re: Play flac media

I do not think the Sonos will use Replaygain.

I'm told by SONOS users that it does in fact use RG tags that are in FLAC files. SONOS will deal with FLAC files just fine with no degradation in the chain. Do keep in mind that SONOS can only handle 16/44.1 files (redbook CD). (well, maybe it can handle up to 48???), but it for sure will NOT handle 24/96 or 24/192. If you have a large library, that's an issue too. About 60,000 maximum tracks, and even fewer if your tags have lots of fields/info. The latter is the main reason I can't consider SONOS (and have a houseful of Squeezebox players instead, which handle large libraries and can handle files up to 24/96 or even 24/192 with a software add-on).

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

I'm told by SONOS users that it does in fact use RG tags that are in FLAC files. SONOS will deal with FLAC files just fine with no degradation in the chain. Do keep in mind that SONOS can only handle 16/44.1 files (redbook CD). (well, maybe it can handle up to 48???), but it for sure will NOT handle 24/96 or 24/192. If you have a large library, that's an issue too. About 60,000 maximum tracks, and even fewer if your tags have lots of fields/info. The latter is the main reason I can't consider SONOS (and have a houseful of Squeezebox players instead, which handle large libraries and can handle files up to 24/96 or even 24/192 with a software add-on).

Thanks a lot for quick reply and making me aware of pros & cons. I just checked that dbpoweramp generated files with sample rate 44.1khz/16bit(1,411kbps) which is lossless. I am wondering why you did you mention that it can only handle 16/44.1? Am I missing anything where I can generate high resolution audio than what dbpoweramp generated? Are you mentioning about playing sacd or dvd audio etc?


I dont' want to compromise quality. I will research on squeeze box as well. My requirement is to be able connect device to audio receiver and play music. It also would help to not to turn on projector.

Are you referring to squeezebox touch? Looking like expensive.

[garym]

Re: Play flac media

yes, squeezebox touch. I think new these were about $299 and there are others (more expensive, like squeezebox transporter, new was about $1900). Don't look too hard, as all these have been discontinued by Logitech. But there are almost unlimited options for playing FLAC files to your system and controlling from iphone, itouch, android phone, ipad, etc. Could be a sonos or squeezebox touch, or could be a small netbook connecting to a DAC or the DAC in your receiver. or could be a number of other things.


You are correct that a CD ripped to FLAC will be 16/44.1. That is lossless for any CD (i.e., 16/44.1 is "redbook" CD). But one can purchase hiresolution FLAC files as well from, for example, HD Tracks (these are NOT CDs). These could be 24/96 or 24/192 instead of 16/44.1. But in my opinion, there is little or nothing to be gained from these hires files. If they sound better, it is likely because they come from *different* masters. It is NOT the fact that they are 24/96 or 24/192. Read a bit about this here:

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

Thanks for clearing up. I found squezebox at amazon for $700. I guess it is because of discontinued. I saw following player about to be released.

http://www.myoliveone.com/Ones/tech_specs

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

yes, squeezebox touch. I think new these were about $299 and there are others (more expensive, like squeezebox transporter, new was about $1900). Don't look too hard, as all these have been discontinued by Logitech. But there are almost unlimited options for playing FLAC files to your system and controlling from iphone, itouch, android phone, ipad, etc. Could be a sonos or squeezebox touch, or could be a small netbook connecting to a DAC or the DAC in your receiver. or could be a number of other things.


You are correct that a CD ripped to FLAC will be 16/44.1. That is lossless for any CD (i.e., 16/44.1 is "redbook" CD). But one can purchase hiresolution FLAC files as well from, for example, HD Tracks (these are NOT CDs). These could be 24/96 or 24/192 instead of 16/44.1. But in my opinion, there is little or nothing to be gained from these hires files. If they sound better, it is likely because they come from *different* masters. It is NOT the fact that they are 24/96 or 24/192. Read a bit about this here:

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Thanks for sharing article. I am not worried about more than 16/44.1 resolution. I don't have anything from hdtracks. I wonder how much DTS HD uses bit rate/sampling?

I tried to look for squeezebox touch and it costs $700 in amazon. Surprised why logitech is not selling them without releasing any new product. So far it seems Sonos is only better solution, if I can live with 60k song limit. I think it is not a problem for some time.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Play flac media

I did research and found that sonos 90 connect will be good enough to connect with receiver using Optical/coax. It seems I can use android tablet to select songs to play on the connect. I guess sonos app through tablet connect to sonos using ip address.

Is sonos decoder honoor replay gain generated by dbpoweramp? Does sonos decode flac and send pcm data to receiver? I am trying to make sure the quality of FLAC is not lost through Sonos.

Sorry to jump in so late!

Yes....it would be the Connect that you need.* There are other players with integrated amplifiers, but since your receiver will handle all that, your choice is made simpler....the Connect will feed an unaltered digital signal to your receiver's D/A converter. So, assuming good rips with dBpoweramp, you will have perfect lossless audio files, and the quality of the output you actually hear will only be limited by the quality of your downstream equipment (receiver & speakers).

As you confirmed, it does indeed recognize the RG tags on FLAC files.

It's also true that the Sonos system imposes limits on library size and resolution, but in practice, those limits really aren't relevant. I have several terabytes of music and I'm not even close to "maxing out" on the size of my music library. I don't anticipate it ever becoming an issue....by the time I ever accumulate THAT much music, we'll probably all be storing and playing music on entirely new technologies and platforms! And higher (than redbook) resolution music, IMHO, is mostly just marketing hype. In reality, there's no audible difference in quality. Theoretical differences simply aren't discernible with the gear that we all use to listen to our music....even the high-end gear. Upgrading to a better DAC or speakers can make a noticeable difference when playing back a given 16/44 audio file.....upgrading the resolution of the audio file makes no noticeable difference when playing back on the same DAC.

Either a basic Sonos or SB player, along with an iOS or Android phone/tablet controller app, should meet your needs just fine. They're both fast and offer nicely-refined user interfaces.


* In a Sonos system, one Sonos device must be hardwired back to your router. That can be any player, or if that's not practical, you can use Sonos' $49 Bridge.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Play flac media

@garym: Are you saying that Logitech has nixed the entire Squeezebox line?? It's been 3-4 years since I used that system, so I haven't followed their developments too closely. Has it been replaced by something? A re-branded, re-named line of players, perhaps?

[garym]

Re: Play flac media

@garym: Are you saying that Logitech has nixed the entire Squeezebox line?? It's been 3-4 years since I used that system, so I haven't followed their developments too closely. Has it been replaced by something? A re-branded, re-named line of players, perhaps?

Yes they have, with no replacement. Yes that's crazy. Logitech has really stumbled on this. The "touch" would have been the sonos connect equivalent. It's gone. No Touch, no Transporter, no Boom, etc. They do sell a rebadged RADIO called the UE Radio. The firmware on the radio can be changed so that it is a Squeezebox Radio. This used to be a hack, but now Logitech has put this in their software to officially allow the switch. But the Radio has no "digital out" or analog out for using with a receiver. It only has headphone out (which can feed a receiver but is not optimum and certainly can't feed a DAC!).

Logitech still runs mysqueezebox.com (so users can still use things like Pandora, siriusXM and other services that require an official "handshake". But the good news is that LMS (the server) is basically open source (so one can use this "forever" with one's own music and internet radio) as long as one's hardware works, and I have plenty of spare SB players myself). The other good news is that there are lots of ways to imitate Squeezebox hardware players now. Also work going on regarding 3rd party LMS "replacements" or supplements. And with an iphone or ipad running $5 or $10 ipeng app, these devices can now emulate a hardware squeezebox player (except generally limited to "48", but still as good as SONOS with similar limits). See these threads as examples:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?99395-Community-Squeeze-OS-F19-Release-1

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?97881-Community-Funded-Squeezebox-Replacement-Would-you-be-interested&highlight=replacement+touch

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?98467-Pre-Announcement-ickStream-Music-Platform&highlight=ickStream

http://vortexbox.org/threads/4577-Logitech-SqueezeBox-replacement-for-under-30?highlight=vamp

p.s. good summary of the SONOS for the OP. I only differ on the library size discussion. It really depends on the user. I know lots of users that have libraries too large for SONOS. I personally have about 75,000 tracks and I'm only about 1/2 way through ripping my ~10,000 CD collection. So I'm already way beyond the limits of a SONOS's basic capacity. I do realize that I'm an outlier and for 99% of users, the SONOS track number limit is irrelevant.