[ScubaMan2017]

....{{{snip}}}}....even a raspberry pi.....{{{snip}}}....

I want an asthetically pleasing source. There's a fascinating blog that I keep an eye on... Archimago's Musings. It's worth a read, eh.

 

[tincanear]

I want an asthetically pleasing source. There's a fascinating blog that I keep an eye on... Archimago's Musings. It's worth a read, eh.

buy (or check your "hardware archives" for) an old metal-topped or suitably vented non-working "for parts only" CD or other audio device locally or on ebay. let it sit for a few days (for high voltage caps, etc... to discharge in case it was plugged in recently), then carefully gut it. fit pi streamer inside.

 

[433521]

Exactly - I figure why not make my files a bit for bit copy of the original? At this point disk space cost is a non-factor

Well, disk space cost is an environmental cost at this point, so there are no 'non factors' anymore. Everything we do, matters.

I do not believe when you copy a wav file of 1's and 0's you are making a bit for bit copy of the music bits, you are copying a 1 and 0 representation in wav form, which is larger than a 1 and 0 zero representation in flac form. But both are represenations if I understand correctly.

 

[Les Strat]

I want an asthetically pleasing source. There's a fascinating blog that I keep an eye on... Archimago's Musings. It's worth a read, eh.

@ScubaMan2017 . I enjoy Archimagos's musings too. Another one I like is Mark Waldrep.

 

[Ableza]

There are lots of "aesthetically pleasing" streamers out there. They just aren't as cheap as a Pi. If you want something nicer looking you just have to pay for it.

 

[438555]

Got the Freya S in this morning, so far very impressed! After a day or so of listening I'll share impressions....

I love my Freya S! It does everything I want, and don't have to think about tubes. Hopefully the demand will come back enough to revive it as a current product. There are a few in B-stock, but I'm guessing those won't last.
looks like you need a heavier DAC to stop the cables from tipping it

 

[johnjen]

Just my 2.5¢ about music file types.

WAV files ARE the digital music files with nothing else, as in no meta data, just the digital music stream separated into tracks.
WAV files are embedded within the ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, etc. files, (yes, sometimes the WAV file data is compressed, which can contribute to the processing 'load' and SQ differences).

So what the 'ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, etc.' file types do is, 'wrap' the WAV files with text files that supply the meta data (album info, musician(s) track info etc.).
The differences between the ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, etc, files is HOW they wrap the meta data around the WAV data.

And the meta data needs to be 'stripped' from the source files before the tracks/album can be played.
This is where SQ differences can/might be heard, as the sequencing and processing required to strip the meta data away from the WAV data will vary by file type, and by the player (how it is configured) to 'prepare' (DSP functions) the WAV files to be sent to the dac.

Personally I have heard slight differences between the ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, file types and so I have 'standardized' on AIFF for all new rips.
But at this point we're talking frog hair magnitude differences, but when pushing towards that 10/10ths performance window, even the little things can make a difference.

This might help to explain why the s/w that can read/write to all of the music file types, (like, translate a FLAC file into an ALAC file etc.) since the WAV file remains 'intact' and it's only the text of the meta data that is reconfigured to meet the chosen file type's specifications.

And of course this explanation is a simplified look-see into all of this, as there is MUCH more involved.


JJ

 

[tincanear]

re Freya S,
I think that some potential buyers didn't like the fact that the PCB looked so empty = overpriced. The design used fewer (macroscopic footprint SMT) dual transistors to accomplish the fully differential SE / XLR cross conversion thru the use of extreme matching / grading of the transistors (which is labor consuming, requires careful lot control during mfg, etc..) within each unit.

And there was also Freya+ which offered the option of passive, solid state, or tubes for 50% more money.

It might be possible to fit into a lower-cost mid-size chassis footprint, albeit taller than most Schiit (Saga Maximus), by using vertical stacked (2-up) XLR connectors. <<Alex groaning in the background re another single-sourced component>>

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

Well, disk space cost is an environmental cost at this point, so there are no 'non factors' anymore. Everything we do, matters.

I do not believe when you copy a wav file of 1's and 0's you are making a bit for bit copy of the music bits, you are copying a 1 and 0 representation in wav form, which is larger than a 1 and 0 zero representation in flac form. But both are represenations if I understand correctly.

As an IT person, I'm very well aware of environmental costs; power and temperature management in data centers are very significant. My personal storage uses WD Red NAS drives connected via Thunderbolt in an Akitio enclosure it's effectively powered down when not in use. The Sumo Andromeda however.......

There are plenty of ways to compress files losslessly - ZIP and TAR immediately come to mind, along with, of course other mentioned formats. I made the choice to rip my files to the simplest possible file format; I rely on Roon and XML files to handle metadata. I like being able to listen offline, but the ability to listen to Tidal within the same interface is nice!

 

[rkw]

WAV files ARE the digital music files with nothing else, as in no meta data, just the digital music stream separated into tracks.
WAV files are embedded within the ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, etc. files

This is incorrect.

WAV is a file format. It is not just the digital music stream (PCM data). WAV files are not embedded within ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
http://soundfile.sapp.org/doc/WaveFormat/

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

re Freya S,
I think that some potential buyers didn't like the fact that the PCB looked so empty = overpriced. The design used fewer (macroscopic footprint SMT) dual transistors to accomplish the fully differential SE / XLR cross conversion thru the use of extreme matching / grading of the transistors (which is labor consuming, requires careful lot control during mfg, etc..) within each unit.

And there was also Freya+ which offered the option of passive, solid state, or tubes for 50% more money.

It might be possible to fit into a lower-cost mid-size chassis footprint, albeit taller than most Schiit (Saga Maximus), by using vertical stacked (2-up) XLR connectors. <<Alex groaning in the background re another single-sourced component>>

Plus Freya S has Nexus - Jason's description of it totally sold me, Covid and my IT duties had me totally consumed, and I missed the fact it went out of stock. I'm just glad it reappeared! In regard to chassis rework, I believe in a recent Facebook Schiitr post he mentioned something along those lines!

 

[corndog71]

My only issue with the Freya S was the noise level. My speakers are 97dB and there is nowhere for noise to hide. It was fine in passive node. I loved the volume control but I didn’t pay $600 for a passive preamp.

 

[earnmyturns]

My understanding is that provided there are no errors in the rip ( and that is very, very rare in my experience)

I use XLD on macOS with a bog-standard USB CD/DVD reader, rip errors have been very rare, even on CDs bought from 2nd hand stores.

 

[earnmyturns]

'Those are ALAC files on your hard drive. They won't sound as good as FLAC or Qobuz'.
I didn't even bother debating this with him; as far as I was concerned, his credibility had just been shot to pieces.

Well, maybe the firmware in the streamers he was hawking was so buggy that is messed up ALAC

 

[earnmyturns]

Earlier this year I copied about 600G of music from a Western Digital external to a Samsung SSD (internal but with sata to USB3 adapter.) The SSD is so much faster for my playing devices to read but the problem I encountered is corrupted files.

What? All of this should be CRC-checked, sounds like you have flaky hardware or software. I regularly copy between multiple drives (USB, SATA) and servers (Linux, Synology NAS), no corruption ever.