[DaveBSC]

Quote:

But that's only possible with lossless formats. With lossy formats like MP3 special software (or firmware) only can realize gapless playback.

You can always rip your disc as a wav or flac range, and then convert that to a single MP3 file if you want gapless MP3 playback. I assume that joining existing MP3s would cause the same kinds of problems as transcoding from lossy to lossy.

 

[xabu]

 
Quote:

You can always rip your disc as a wav or flac range, and then convert that to a single MP3 file if you want gapless MP3 playback. I assume that joining existing MP3s would cause the same kinds of problems as transcoding from lossy to lossy.

 

You're right ... but who would do such a thing if in possession of a high fidelity HM-801 which to feed with lossy stuff seems like an insult in the first place

I just wanted to elaborate technically that it is more complicated to realize software based gapless playback for MP3 than for e.g. WAV.

Me personally I don't care anymore about MP3. It was just a temporary expedient. Compared to analog audio sources like disc records even lossless digital stuff is lossy enough, so I don't need it to lose any more than necessary.

 
Edit:
I learned some more.
Analog audio reproduction source may (or may not, depending on the listener and equipment) sound better than a digital source.
But technically todays digital recording and playback methods are way better able to reproduce an analog sound than analogous recording and playback methods.
With the technique available today an original soundwave sampled and recorded digitally and converted back to analogous without any mechanical disturbance should resemble the original wave more than mechanicaly recorded analogous on a disc record and restored mechanically.
 
That said, there's a common misconception regarding the Nyquist theorem.
A digitally sampled sound wave could be restored equally without information loss ONLY if the samples would be taken endlessly for a given signal. Thats never going to happen ...
So all sound recording and reproduction is lossy compared to the original recorded sound.
Now we can start to discuss which one is more lossy ... a mechanical reproduction with all its mass related inaccuracies, or a digital reproduction with no mechanical (SSD or equally based storage) influence at all (... up to the analog reproduction in a speaker or headphone in the end ..) but inaccuracies due to the fact that all physical possible reproduction of digital resampled material is "only" a mathematical approximation to the original.
 
 

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

You're right ... but who would do such a thing if in possession of a high fidelity HM-801 which to feed with lossy stuff seems like an insult in the first place

It's certainly not something I would do, I was just pointing out that it's easily doable if someone wants to. 95% of my music is now in FLAC or APE, and eventually I'll hit 100%. 

 

[kertinor]

Hi. It's real characteristics of HM-801.
http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54879
And it's not bla-bla-bla.

 

[Trogdor]

Quote:

Hi. It's real characteristics of HM-801.
http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54879
And it's not bla-bla-bla.

This has been hashed around several times on HeadFi.  Why are you posting it here?

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

Hi. It's real characteristics of HM-801.
http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54879
And it's not bla-bla-bla.

Hi. This is the thread for HM-801 firmware updates. Not a thread for stupid arguments about RMAA frequency response results. And that's very much bla-bla-bla.

 

[mrarroyo]

^ and ^^ I agree the sound out of the HM801 speaks for itself, and it is darn good.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Thanks for the response.  You are right, apple uses them as M4A files, but .AAC is actually ISO standardized version of MPEG-4 that Apple and others adopted. (See Wikipedia cite below.)  Apple calls them .M4A files, but they are the same as .AAC.  Media Monkey, Windows Media Player, Etc.can all play Apple.M4A files (even just renamed with a .AAC extension) since they are really ".AAC" files. 
 
FLAC is so superior and I'm moving there, but I have a lot of .AAC files that not part of my daily repertoire that I'd love to play on my oh--so-musical-Hifiman.  Just was wondering if anybody has tried a .AAC or renamed .M4A>.AAC and gotten it to play.  The specs on on the device says it plays .AAC.  Thanks for your help!!  (PS I believe AAC decoders are free so they can be included in any hardware.)
 
 
 
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates.^[2]
AAC has been standardized by ISO and IEC, as part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications.^[3][4] The MPEG-2 standard contains several audio coding methods, including the MP3 coding scheme.

I kind of experimented with a few aac encoding and find out what the problem is. HM801 does play .aac files, but only when the metadata doesn't contain any image file (i.e. CD cover).

 

[glc]

I came across a annoying problem. Pushing quickly on the down button the screen back to the main menu. Does anyone else have this same issue? Please let me know.
 
I'm running the latest firmware.

 

[dallan]

Does anyone know, when using the usb dac function with the 801 does it run off batteries or off the usb power like the pico dac.  I am going to take a trip with my computer and i am wondering what the limitations of charging, using as a dac are.  Seems lately when i have tried it the batteries don't go as fast while feeding it to an external amp and using it only in dac mode.

 

[Trogdor]

Does anyone know, when using the usb dac function with the 801 does it run off batteries or off the usb power like the pico dac.  I am going to take a trip with my computer and i am wondering what the limitations of charging, using as a dac are.  Seems lately when i have tried it the batteries don't go as fast while feeding it to an external amp and using it only in dac mode.

It does not ever run off the USB...I mean seriously have you looked at the battery!

 

[dallan]

That's the question, i rarely the 801 as a usb dac, when i did the battery didn't seem to go down so I wasn't sure if it was running of the internal batteries.  Guess i could hook it up and let it run a couple of hours and come back and check the battery, just thought someone may know.

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

That's the question, i rarely the 801 as a usb dac, when i did the battery didn't seem to go down so I wasn't sure if it was running of the internal batteries.  Guess i could hook it up and let it run a couple of hours and come back and check the battery, just thought someone may know.

It runs off of battery power in USB DAC mode. I use it that way sometimes with my laptop.

 

[dallan]

Cool, that's what i thought, just hoping i wouldn't have to bring my Pico dac only as back up when out of the country.

 

[DaveBSC]

You can always plug it in while it's in DAC mode. The slim charger is universal (100-240V), so as long as you have an adapter for the prongs, you can plug it in anywhere.