Head-Fi's Sponsors
(Premier Sponsors bolded) |
|
|
Can Jam '09
(2009
International
Head-Fi Meet)
Impressions,
Reviews, Photos |
Can
Jam '09 graphic
courtesy of Edwood
Click on the links below
for Can Jam '09 photos,
impressions and reviews:
blubliss
1,
2,
3
dallan
1,
2,
3,
4
santacore
1,
2
nhat_thanh
1, 2
vpivinylspinner
1,
2,
3
amb
1
augustwest
1
eaglejo
1
johnsonad
1
shellylh
1
Jon L
1,
2,
3,
4
Germancub
1
zippy2001
1
IPodPJ
1
bhd812
1
Edwood
1,
2
abellaw
1,
2
minidiscs
1
atothex
1
HighLife
1
achristilaw
1
SiBurning
1,
2,
3,
4
SiBurning
5,
6,
7
LFF
1
Iron_Dreamer
1
doping panda
1
morphsci
1
ironbut
1
shaizada
1
jasper994
1,
2
jp11801
1
Uncle Erik
1
drubrew
1
(More impressions/photos
still being added.)
|
|
|
Head-Fi Blogs
and Facebook |
|
|
Head-Fi's Sponsors
(Premier Sponsors bolded) |
|
|
|
| Portable Source Gear Discussion of portable audio source gear, like iPods, other digital audio players (DAPs), MD players, portable CD players. |
06-22-2006, 05:53 PM
|
 |
1000+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,239
|
|
building a lossless library on my PC, advice please
I used to have an ipod an ripped ~200CDs to AAC, then I switched to a Sony (which I still use) and ripped the same CDs to ATRAC. Now I want a lossless dap for my bedsite system.
I was thinking, why not copy the .WAVs or whatever from the CDs lossless to my HD (will take about 100 Gb, got 500 in my PC, so I can even backup) and convert/transfer them to any player I want.
Is that possible?
what's the best software to use?
Does software like itunes and sonicstage allow transferring from the HD, and can they play the lossless files directly?
Are there other things to think about, it's a lot of work and this time I want to do it right and never have to do it again.
Advice would be welcome.
|
06-22-2006, 06:09 PM
|
 |
Headphoneus Supremus
Member of the Trade:
S² Audio
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 3,599
|
|
some of the answers can depend on what you plan to use as your DAP. but first, let's start at the beginning.
the most popular piece of software used amongst us audio geeks is EAC. it has terrific error correction abilities when dealing with less than perfect CDs. you can set it up that it rips and compresses into FLAC. FLAC is very popular in regards to lossless formats. if you go this route, you can either use an iRiver that will natively play FLAC files or you can use an iPod but you'll need to install the Rockbox firmware. i'm not sure about iRiver but with the Rockbox'd iPod you can transfer the music via simple copy/paste drag/drop windows explorer interface.
if you are looking for the easiest route and you have an iPod you can then use iTunes to rip your CDs into ALAC which is Apple's proprietary lossless format. then you can just synch up your iPod - as you already know - with iTunes.
there is no difference in sound quality when it comes to lossless files so don't let that be your deciding factor on which way to go. it all kind of depends what you plan on using for your source and how difficult or easy you want the whole process to go.
there are other options but the above two - with variations here and there - tend to be the most popular.
hope that helps some.
|
06-22-2006, 06:16 PM
|
|
1000+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,239
|
|
Thank you.
I'm not quite sure this is what I'm looking for though; I want to build up a library so that in the future, if I want to use an ipod or a sony or a zen or whatever all I have to do is import and convert the whole library, and neverever have to feed my PC a CD every five minutes.
I don't care about the storage it takes, and how long it takes my computer to convert things.
i know f.i. that sonicstage can import .WAV-files (though it'll probably do something horrible with DRM or conversion instead of copying, but if so, that's what backups are good for).
|
06-22-2006, 06:54 PM
|
 |
1000+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Derby, United Kingdom
Posts: 1,147
|
|
Personally I would (and did) convert everything through EAC into FLAC and store those. The reason why I used FLAC rather then the WAV file straight off of the CD is so that the tag information could be saved as well.
From the FLAC files they can be transcoded into pretty much any other codec you want/need.
__________________
Speaker Rig LAME v3.97 MP3 -V 2 --vbr-new --> Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro --> Creative 5.1 Speakers
Headphone Rig FLAC Level 5 --> USB cable --> Corda Aria --> DT880 or A900LTD or MS1
Portable Rig LAME v3.97 MP3 -V 2 --vbr-new --> 80Gb iPod 5.5Gen LOD --> Fiio M5 --> KSC75 or CX400
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Beauregard
The mere existence of newer, better, and more expensive gear doesn't mean that your current rig sounds any worse than it did last week
|
|
06-22-2006, 07:03 PM
|
|
Headphoneus Supremus
Member of the Trade:
S² Audio
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 3,599
|
|
yup - i agree with m_memmory for your purposes. converted all into FLAC via EAC and you'll be set going forward. you'll even be able to burn audio CDs from your FLAC files if need be.
|
06-22-2006, 08:06 PM
|
|
1000+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,239
|
|
Ok, sounds convincing.
The tags are a good argument, and as long as I can convert it to f.i WAV I can import in Sonic Stage, likewise other converters.
Thank you both.
|
06-22-2006, 09:20 PM
|
 |
Headphoneus Supremus:
Reviewerus Prolificus
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 11,439
|
|
That makes sense. Use EAC and comvert to FLAC with the ID tags. If you ever decide to go to an iPod you can use dbpoweramp to convert to Apple Lossless with no loss.
__________________
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the volume of PM's I have been receiving in connection with my reviews, I no longer have the time to answer PM's from people with zero posts. Please read head-fi first before asking questions.
Team GO-U-NORTHWESTERN
Pics: Main Home Rig; Bedside Rig; Office Rig; Portable Rig;
Headphones: JVC HP-DX1000, HA-RX900; Headphile Deep Cup Darth Beyers VXD3,VXD4; Beyerdynamic DT990/600 (Manufaktur) DT770/600 (Manufaktur), DT880/600 Balanced (Manufaktur); HiFi-Man HE-2 Planar Magnetic; Sennheiser PXC-350; Shure SRH840
Home amps: Ray Samuels Audio Stealth (Mullard ECC32/CV4003); Decware Zen CSP-2 (Amperex BB 6DJ8/Sophia Princess 274B); Darkvoice 337 (GEC 6AS7G's/Tung-Sol mesh plate 6SJ7GTs); Wheatfield Audio HA-2 (Mullard ECC32/GEC 6AS7G/GEC U52); Ming-Da MC84-C 07 (Mullard CV4004/EL84/EM87); Audiotailor Jade (GEC 6AS7G/Sylvania 5751); J. Sound Lab Headphone (Mullard 12AT7); Audio-GD Phoenix; Musical Paradise MP-301 (Ken-Rad 6V6GT/Mullard 6AU6)
Portable Amps: Ray Samuels Audio P-51 Mustang; Decware ZenHead; Qables iQube
Sources: Denon DP59L table + Clearaudio Maestro Wood / VPI Scoutmaster + Benz Micro Wood L2 > Audio Electronics PH-1 DJH Phono Preamp; Music Hall 25.2 DAC; Denon DVD-5900;Red Wine Audio iMod iPod (Apple Lossless) & ALO VCap dock; Sony SCD-555ES SACD player
Loudspeaker system: Krell KAV250 Preamp>Sunfire Signature II Power amp > B&W Nautilus 800 Signatures + Velodyne FSR-1500/Martin Logan Descent
Tube testers: B&K Dyna-quick 650 & Dyna-Jet 606
Head-fi feedback
|
06-22-2006, 10:08 PM
|
 |
Headphoneus Supremus
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Richardson, TX
Posts: 2,141
|
|
EAC can easily be set up to obtain all the CD information from the web, so ripping amounts to popping a CD in, telling it where you want the files to go, and pressing a couple keys. Tada, fully tagged Flacs neatly in your file structure.
__________________
Quote:
|
looking for the headphone manifestation of the Olympus OM2n.
|
|
06-23-2006, 12:08 AM
|
 |
Headphoneus Supremus
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 1,608
|
|
FLAC is okay but if you want to save even more space and have faster encoding/decodeing I would go wavpack.
__________________
(\_/)
(O.o)
(> < )
faster world domination
pewpewpewpewpewpewpew,
riding towards insanity
one jabberwocky at a time
team because it feels good
flickr twitter photo
|
06-23-2006, 09:23 AM
|
|
Headphoneus Supremus
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: The Emerald Isle
Posts: 2,116
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by wanderman
FLAC is okay but if you want to save even more space and have faster encoding/decodeing I would go wavpack.
|
What are the drawbacks to wavpack
|
06-23-2006, 09:32 AM
|
 |
Headphoneus Supremus
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,301
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sparky191
What are the drawbacks to wavpack
|
Less support by applications, and no support from any portable players from my knowledge, but overall it has the greatest variety of features out of all lossless formats, and rather good compression imho. All lossless formats sound the same though.
__________________
Creative X-fi Elite pro --> Logitech Z-5500 over Coaxial/3 1/8" outputs / Hd-600's w/ 650 upgrade cable through MisterX PPA output, Sirius Satielle Radio (Kenwood Dt-7000S over Optical output to Optical input on my soundcard.)
Coming soon:New cd player, Turntable, Dac, and a few new cables.
My feedback:
Team Jerker! Team X-fi! Team Sennheiser!
|
06-23-2006, 11:22 PM
|
|
100+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: North America
Posts: 249
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by JaGWiRE
Less support by applications, and no support from any portable players from my knowledge, but overall it has the greatest variety of features out of all lossless formats, and rather good compression imho. All lossless formats sound the same though.
|
Doesn't Rockbox support Wavpack? BTW, iRiver needs Rockbox to play FLAC at all just like iPod.
__________________
Portable Audio Devices that I Owned Over the Years - 1992--1998: Various Cheap Tape Players/Recorders [All dead.]
- 1999-06-18--2000-05-08: Sony D-E446CK [My very first portable CD player. Got stolen in 2001-05.]
- 2000-05-08--2000-06-01: Sony MZR-37 [Overheated battery section during charging.]
- 2000-06-23--2000-12-22: Sony MZR-70 [Accidentally dropped five times; stopped recording in 2000-10.]
- 2000-12-22--2001-04: Sony D-EJ711 [Spindle broke apart; still missing two pieces that hold the CD.]
- 2001-04: Some cheap 'Venturer' model. [Still have it today, but haven't used it since 2002.]
- 2001-05-20--2002-11-11: Sony MZR-500 [Randomly shuts off as if you removed the battery. Never dropped or subjected it to impact.]
- 2002-11-12--2003-12: iRiver iMP-150 [Still have it and love it!]
- 2003-12--2006-02-02: iRiver iMP-550 [Still have it and love it! Had to use it throughout 2005 due to my iMP-900 being at iRiver whilst they figure out how to solve a random file skip problem.]
- 2004-12-03--2006-05-06: iRiver iMP-900 [Random file skip problem was fixed on 2006-01-19 via a new firmware upgrade. I stopped using this unit when I got an iRiver H140 and got a decent amount of my music loaded on it.]
- 2006-05-06--: iRiver H140D [I'm currently using this. I have Rockbox on it since 2006-06-07. So far, it runs like a dream come true.]
|
06-24-2006, 12:08 AM
|
|
100+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Mesa, AZ
Posts: 220
|
|
I'm re-ripping or ripping all of my CDs to FLAC and 192K VBR AAC simultaneously using EAC and MAREO. MAREO is pretty cool, as it is called from EAC and can sequentially rip most any format that has command line ripping capabilities. It took me maybe 1 hour to set the whole thing up. There are lots of good tutorials for setting EAC up, and MAREO was super simple as well.
I chose FLAC for my lossless format because I have a Squeezebox and I don't believe it supports native wavpack streaming.
So now I have FLAC for home listening and AAC for portable. Having lossless is the most important part because now if I decide to try out a new format or get more resolving equipment (or better ears), I can re-encode my compressed music without re-ripping. If I have to do that now, I use foobar's convert function which is very cool, and also easy to set up.
|
06-24-2006, 12:19 AM
|
|
1000+ Head-Fi'er
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,166
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 03:21 AM.
|
