[scuttle]

Quote:

 Of course this has already been done to death, here and on other forums, but it's always best to convince yourself with your own tests. If you can use ABX software, so much the better.

 
I'm sure the issues have been settled - I just what want to know what the differences sound like to me and whether I can get them in an ABX. (Which I do by using a script to randomly rename files - this way I can abx on a PMP.)

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

 
 
A Sansa Clip+ player with 64Gb a mini SD card will
store most of the music in AAC 160 format 
but to keep it simple?...
 
(no rockboxing of the Clip+)
 
 

If you plan to have a 64GB card in the Clip with lossy files (which is totally fine, I also use lossy files on my DAPs), then you will have no choice but to rockbox the Clip. The Clip+ original firmware has file limits in its database....officially 8000, but often less than that in the real world (depending on how much information people have in their ID3 tags) so the end result will be that you'll have a bunch of music on the card that the player won't even recognize is there.
 
Rockbox will eliminate that file restriction, and also the incredibly long database refresh of the original firmware. 

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

 
Any other suggestions?... improvement to this
but to keep it simple?...
 
(no rockboxing of the Clip+)
 

 
Rockboxing honestly is very simple. And a Rockboxed Clip with boot as Rockboxed or regular as you like (you just hold down a button when you switch it on to decide.) The main advantages are
 
- Better battery life 
 
- Folder navigation
 
- Better eq, control of crossfeed, dithering and gapless playback
 
- You can play and charge at the same time
 
I think you are in the EU, so your warranty on the Clip isn't changed if you Rockbox.

 

[Linea]

I was in Melbourne Australia on a holiday... today my wife
and I are flying  back to US... 
 
I wanted to avoid rockboxing cause I am not comfortable
with putting something I am not familiar with on a brand
new drive.  But I will try.  I guess I'll learn something new.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions...

 

[scuttle]

Quote:

I was in Melbourne Australia on a holiday... today my wife
and I are flying  back to US... 
 
I wanted to avoid rockboxing cause I am not comfortable
with putting something I am not familiar with on a brand
new drive.  But I will try.  I guess I'll learn something new.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions...

 
I have to confess, with an expensive player I'd be very cautious. But the Clip is so insanely cheap...
 
And there really isn't anything to Rockboxing - you just follow the instructions exactly and it's done. Which isn't to say that you definitely should do it... but for me the battery life and "advanced" eq interface have been big wins - if I'd borrowed a Super Clip with those features built in, then I'd probably paid for a new more expensive Clip to keep them.

 

[Linea]

We are back in US... 

Here is what I did...  I've got a JDS O2 + an ODAC separate. 
I managed to rip all my CDs (more than 750) to FLAC and store
them onto a 2Tb HD.  Part of them are stored on a Sansa Clip+
with a 32Gb.  I guess that is good for the start. 
Managed to convert all the files to AAC 320 and store it on an
iPod Classic.  (its only half full, about 80Gb with other material)
 
The O2 works great...  THe LCD2 were running for 5 days on
pink noise and music so the are over 100 hours worked in. 
They sound amazing.  THe are for sure power hungry. 
I got a LOD cable for the iPod, a 3.5mm stereo cable for
the Sansa.  I also configured my new Microsoft Surface USB
DAC output to a 24bit/96kHz output so the short USB to ODAC
works great.  The output from Surface is perfect just enough
power to use only the 2.5dB gain on the O2 ... the volume
is set about 1 and 3 o'clock and the sound is just enough
loud.  Perfect. 
 
Here is a pic of the setting, unplugged. 

BTW the Surface is a 128Gb version and has a player that plays
any file format (FLAC, AAC etc.) also using the MediaMonkey
I have a fair control over files. 

WISH THEY HAVE A NICE GUI DRIVEN SOFTWARE FOR MUSIC
MEDIA... ANY IDEAS, SUGGESTIONS ON A PC PLAYER?

Thank you all of you for help.. .For now I am very happy with
the sound.  Next will be a home amp search but that comes
later...  Now I have so much to listen and enjoy. 

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. 

linea

 

[scuttle]

I think Foobar is the almost universal choice as a Windows player.

 

[r0d0l]

Found this forum when searching for my own info about playing lossless files on a iPod, so I figured I would chime in on this topic.  I went through the same research process as you have when trying to decide what format to use to "archive" my CD collection, although admittedly I did not go as deep into the listening tests.  I already had most of my CDs in iTunes as MP3s, but I wanted to redo everything in lossless format.
 
I ended up deciding to re-rip all of my CDs in WAV format.  I understand that FLAC is a lossless format and therefore a FLAC file and a lossless WAV file will sound identical.  But my non-expert opinion is that lossless WAV is an identical bit-by-bit "copy" of the original CD, so why not start there?  There is no compression whatsoever.  I used an older computer to build a NAS device on the NAS4FREE platform and ripped the CDs directly to the NAS storage; I run a Subsonic server on the NAS which allows me to stream all of my music in the uncompressed WAV format to various devices.  The setup works great and the sound quality is spectacular!  Perhaps I wouldn't notice a difference if I had ripped to FLAC, but since space is not an issue my thought was "why compress at all?"
 
My search now is to find a way to sync the uncompressed WAV files to an iPod so I can take the music in my car.  In the alternative I figure that I can still convert the WAV files to another lossless format if necessary such as FLAC or OOG, in order to get them to an iPod.  But I will always have the original WAV "archive" of all of my CDs.  (There are Subsonic apps available for both Apple and Android devices and I have streamed WAV directly through a device to my car, but the larger WAV file sizes does sometimes cause pauses in the music based on the "current" bandwith in use - streaming WAV is fine if I am on WiFi, but streaming through my wireless carrier when away from WiFi is an issue).
 
Any suggestions or comments about how to sync WAV or other formats other than MP3 to an iPod would be most welcome!  Even if it means no iTunes (which I would actually prefer)!

 

[cjl]

  I ended up deciding to re-rip all of my CDs in WAV format.  I understand that FLAC is a lossless format and therefore a FLAC file and a lossless WAV file will sound identical.  But my non-expert opinion is that lossless WAV is an identical bit-by-bit "copy" of the original CD, so why not start there?  There is no compression whatsoever.  I used an older computer to build a NAS device on the NAS4FREE platform and ripped the CDs directly to the NAS storage; I run a Subsonic server on the NAS which allows me to stream all of my music in the uncompressed WAV format to various devices.  The setup works great and the sound quality is spectacular!  Perhaps I wouldn't notice a difference if I had ripped to FLAC, but since space is not an issue my thought was "why compress at all?"

In part because tagging with wav files is somewhere between a pain in the neck and impossible, while flac makes it easy. Also, why waste space if you don't have to?

 

[r0d0l]

Disk space is dirt cheap these days... I don't consider the extra space to be a "waste".  With most of my CDs already ripped, I have used only 20% of the drive space on my NAS.  And if I need to add space in the future it is a simple process to swap the disks for larger ones without compromising the data in any way.
 
I am content knowing that I have WAV file archives of all of my CDs.  If I then need to convert them to another format for whatever reason, I can do so once, multiple times, whatever, without having to touch the CDs again.  Also for my purposes tagging wasn't an issue.
 
Thanks for your response!

 

[cjl]

I agree that disk space isn't an issue, but when there's zero difference between the files aside from the fact that one is ~60% the size, I will tend to go with the small file option. That having been said, aside from the tagging and disk space, there's no real downside to wav, so if you are OK with both of those downsides, I agree that there's no reason not to just use wav.

 

[Agharta]

Once you stop straining to analyse the sound quality, you can actually enjoy the music. Things sound better when you relax.

As the zen phrase goes, the best way to climb a mountain is to begin at the top.

 

[SilverEars]

Once you stop straining to analyse the sound quality, you can actually enjoy the music. Things sound better when you relax.

As the zen phrase goes, the best way to climb a mountain is to begin at the top.

  How can you climb when you are already at the top?

 

[Agharta]

Indeed. You are not familiar with Zen Buddhism, I see.

 

[bigshot]

  I agree that disk space isn't an issue, but when there's zero difference between the files aside from the fact that one is ~60% the size, I will tend to go with the small file option.

 
That's why I use AAC 256 VBR. It sounds the same. Sound is all I care about.