[ascherjim]

I usually listen to flac-encoded music on my laptop's hard drive via SqueezeBox. with which I am very, very satisfied (understatement). However, there are occasions when I desire to listen to my laptop music (still flac-encoded) away from my SqueezeBox set up, i.e., in a more portable setting. I have SoftSqueeze and Media Jukebox 12 media players already installed on my laptop (both of which, of course, handle flac) and can feed their output into a portable amplifier via a portable USB Dac. Are there any other flac-handling media players available that might provide better sound? Or in reality is flac just(!) flac, and any PC media player will basically sound the same?

 

[mattcalf]

Foobar2000 does a very good job with any music files. Try it out!

 

[krmathis]

+1 on Foobar2000. Assuming that your PC run MS Windows

 

[Barock]

Western Digital's WD TV plays FLAC (via external HDD/Flashdrive. Might be scorned by the purists, but it sounds just fine through optical (or line) out through my stereo, at least I can't tell the difference between that and the original CD, and frees my computer up for the computing...

 

[Rempert]

I think anything which handles flac is using the same decoder. If you aren't using any effect plugins, they ought to all sound pretty much the same.

 

[ascherjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barock /img/forum/go_quote.gif Western Digital's WD TV plays FLAC (via external HDD/Flashdrive. Might be scorned by the purists, but it sounds just fine through optical (or line) out through my stereo, at least I can't tell the difference between that and the original CD, and frees my computer up for the computing...

Barock: This product, which I've never heard of before, sounds fascinating. (And I already keep my music on WD Passport external hard drives!) After reading the WDTV on-line manual, the only question I have (on which I need reassurance before purchasing) is whether the digital optical toslink option will feed my stereo music to my dac and amplifier, or whether it only works with a digital TV surround-sound signal. Maybe you have the answer. I would not want to feed my music from it as an analogue signal through its RCA jacks. Thanks much for the tip. Regards, Jim

 

[ascherjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rempert /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think anything which handles flac is using the same decoder. If you aren't using any effect plugins, they ought to all sound pretty much the same.

Rempert: Thanks much to you and all others for taking the time to respond to my query. I did suspect that the flac processing is pretty much the same from all media player decoders.

 

[peter73]

I am interested in WDTV as well and tried to find some information on the point that is most important to me - is it capable of bit-perfect stream through the digital out. I have found a posting on avs saying that WDTV applies some sort of gain to the audio even through the digital out. Is anyone able to confirm this? The easiest way to detect processing of the digital data would be to output HDCD encoded wave or flac to and HDCD capable decoder and check whether the HDCD indicator "lights-up".

 

[ascherjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter73 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am interested in WDTV as well and tried to find some information on the point that is most important to me - is it capable of bit-perfect stream through the digital out. I have found a posting on avs saying that WDTV applies some sort of gain to the audio even through the digital out. Is anyone able to confirm this? The easiest way to detect processing of the digital data would be to output HDCD encoded wave or flac to and HDCD capable decoder and check whether the HDCD indicator "lights-up".

Peter: I've just discovered the WDTV Forum (which perhaps you yourself already have).

WDTV Media Player - Index

Through perusing it at length I THINK I have gotten the answer I was seeking -- that I CAN receive a digital stereo signal through the toslink outlet. You might find the answer to your concern there, if you haven't already attempted that.

 

[peter73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ascherjim /img/forum/go_quote.gif Peter: I've just discovered the WDTV Forum (which perhaps you yourself already have)... You might find the answer to your concern there, if you haven't already attempted that.

I've seen it - no answer to my question there
Bit-perfect is not something that is easy to check - it does require an HDCD source and HDCD capable dac and therefore it is not something people would usually notice by chance.

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

it does require an HDCD source

So such thing, as long as the output is unaltered (digital out)I have a HDCD capable DAC, and can get HDCD led to light up from standard CD players with digital out, and Squeezebox with replygain disabled.

You just need a HDCD capable DAC. You can buy HDCD CD players though.

 

[peter73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a HDCD capable DAC, and can get HDCD led to light up from standard CD players with digital out, and Squeezebox with replygain disabled.

This means that sqweezebox is bit-perfect, Unfortunatelly it requires a pc (or a NAS) running for music playback. I am trying to put together a "standalone" HDD-based system and squeezebox would be perfect if only it had an USB port. Have you tried some other media player with your HDCD capable dac?

 

[iriverdude]

No I haven't used stand alone hard drive based media players. I wouldn't mind trying out a Popcorn Hour though.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Install a Flac Plugin in Winamp and your good to go.

 

[ascherjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ascherjim /img/forum/go_quote.gif Barock: This product, which I've never heard of before, sounds fascinating. (And I already keep my music on WD Passport external hard drives!) After reading the WDTV on-line manual, the only question I have (on which I need reassurance before purchasing) is whether the digital optical toslink option will feed my stereo music to my dac and amplifier, or whether it only works with a digital TV surround-sound signal. Maybe you have the answer. I would not want to feed my music from it as an analogue signal through its RCA jacks. Thanks much for the tip. Regards, Jim

I've gone ahead and purchased the WDTV and hooked it up to my BottleHead tube amp via my Headroom DAC (which can handle coax, optical and usb digital inputs) and ran a rough A/B comparison with my SqueezeBox hookup (SqueezeBox using coax and WDTV using optical) and am gratified to report that to my ears (admittedly aging) both sound the same. But in retrospect I find that not surprising as I believe a flac lossless stream remains the same no matter what its source.