CD to HDD
TransNova
I haven't noticed any change after defragging.
SandyK
TransNova said:sandyK
What happens when the computer defrags? Do some computers do a better job than others with regards to the sound quality afterwards? After all the data has to be rewritten to a different section of the drive so it must have a change in SQ.
TransNova
I haven't noticed any change after defragging.
SandyK
Continuing on TransNova's thread: what about different filesystems? Are you using pre-vista windows? And if so do different kernels, or more generally different, OSes sound different? Different Media Players? Different harddrives? Different HDD interfaces?
What differences, if any, in a playback system do you accept as, given proper operation, irrelevant to final sound quality?
What differences, if any, in a playback system do you accept as, given proper operation, irrelevant to final sound quality?
Let's assume that one of the two identical files is severely fragmented, while the other is not. If you burn a CD from each file, there may be a potential problem with the fragmented file, if the read buffer is chosen very small; but I'm not even entirely sure about that. Maybe somebody with more detailled computer knowhow can comment on this (I would assume the burn program would warn you if this happens).
If the hash files are identical, the probability that the two files differ anywhere is probably much smaller than finding a specific grain of sand on the planet by accident; besides there is always the trivial way of making a bit by bit comparison of the files. But this is really unnecessary.
For two files to sound different, at least some of their samples must be different. This is assuming that they are played via exactly the same procedure, i.e. same operating system, same HD, same partition, same reproduction chain, same everything. Any other way of comparison would be meaningless.
Kurt
If the hash files are identical, the probability that the two files differ anywhere is probably much smaller than finding a specific grain of sand on the planet by accident; besides there is always the trivial way of making a bit by bit comparison of the files. But this is really unnecessary.
For two files to sound different, at least some of their samples must be different. This is assuming that they are played via exactly the same procedure, i.e. same operating system, same HD, same partition, same reproduction chain, same everything. Any other way of comparison would be meaningless.
Kurt
CD to HDD
Tim
I am using XP Sp3. I have a slightly modified Creative X-FI Extreme Music, SPDIF OUT into the X-DAC V3. My preferred playback medium is Creative Media Source Player although I did recently try Foobar 2000 which also sounded pretty good.
I mentioned to my son yesterday what I was doing. He has no interest whatsoever in electronics, even less in what his old man does, but when I mentioned .flac, he just said that people download .flac files mainly because they get free copies. He then said that he finds they have lost much of their sparkle compared to the retail CD, and no longer downloads them.
This is exactly what started me off in this mad crusade. When I read reports about the quality of the burns from this LG BluRay writer, I quickly bought one. This was then followed by the purchase of the previously mentioned Sony Blu-spec samplers from CD Japan. I have no interest in going into all kinds of other proposed tests at my age. I am just enjoying the improved playback from the HDD resulting from this.
You guys will just have to wait, and see if the CD that I sent Hugo in Belgium backs up my claims or not. If it does, and I do not see why it shouldn't, after my friend played his copy of the same CD through his new SC ULD2 amplifier here yesterday,(Oppo DV981HD - SPDIF - MF X-DAC V3- Class A preamp - SC ULD2 modded as per current SC ULD2 thread) and also heard differences. I would presume that Hugo has many contacts in DIYAudio and elsewhere, who should be able to find the reasons why.
SandyK
Tim
I am using XP Sp3. I have a slightly modified Creative X-FI Extreme Music, SPDIF OUT into the X-DAC V3. My preferred playback medium is Creative Media Source Player although I did recently try Foobar 2000 which also sounded pretty good.
I mentioned to my son yesterday what I was doing. He has no interest whatsoever in electronics, even less in what his old man does, but when I mentioned .flac, he just said that people download .flac files mainly because they get free copies. He then said that he finds they have lost much of their sparkle compared to the retail CD, and no longer downloads them.
This is exactly what started me off in this mad crusade. When I read reports about the quality of the burns from this LG BluRay writer, I quickly bought one. This was then followed by the purchase of the previously mentioned Sony Blu-spec samplers from CD Japan. I have no interest in going into all kinds of other proposed tests at my age. I am just enjoying the improved playback from the HDD resulting from this.
You guys will just have to wait, and see if the CD that I sent Hugo in Belgium backs up my claims or not. If it does, and I do not see why it shouldn't, after my friend played his copy of the same CD through his new SC ULD2 amplifier here yesterday,(Oppo DV981HD - SPDIF - MF X-DAC V3- Class A preamp - SC ULD2 modded as per current SC ULD2 thread) and also heard differences. I would presume that Hugo has many contacts in DIYAudio and elsewhere, who should be able to find the reasons why.
SandyK
At least XRCD is remastered, but gosh, I'm not paying $40 for a remaster.
Re: CD to HDD
I think he is probably confusing the .mp3 format (lossy compression) with .flac, very few organizations that don't care a lot about audio quality use it. Most teens are assuredly not downloading flac as the leading player (iPod) does not support it unless they have installed open source Rockbox firmware on a model for which Rockbox firmware is available. I am sufficiently quality conscious, enough so that I generally only download 24 bit/48kHz and up files if these are available, and purchase mainly SACDs or LPs as physical media. I spent a lot of time comparing flac and wav files and heard no difference. I use M-Audio Audiophile 2496 coaxial spdif out to a 24 bit homebrew dac, (no resampling in hardware or software) and always use asio or direct kernal streaming to avoid the windows kmixer. A lot of sound cards resample in hardware to 48kHz, (Anything using Realtec chipsets for example) any comparison using such a sound card IMHO is pointless. (Older cards with certain versions of the ViA Envy chipset usually do not resample. Still seen in some prosumer cards made by EMU, M-Audio, and a few others.)
Umm, "sparkle" is a term I would apply to very few recent cds, and not a lot of older ones, FWIW that is an attribute I hear mainly on other technically better formats.
sandyK said:
I think he is probably confusing the .mp3 format (lossy compression) with .flac, very few organizations that don't care a lot about audio quality use it. Most teens are assuredly not downloading flac as the leading player (iPod) does not support it unless they have installed open source Rockbox firmware on a model for which Rockbox firmware is available. I am sufficiently quality conscious, enough so that I generally only download 24 bit/48kHz and up files if these are available, and purchase mainly SACDs or LPs as physical media. I spent a lot of time comparing flac and wav files and heard no difference. I use M-Audio Audiophile 2496 coaxial spdif out to a 24 bit homebrew dac, (no resampling in hardware or software) and always use asio or direct kernal streaming to avoid the windows kmixer. A lot of sound cards resample in hardware to 48kHz, (Anything using Realtec chipsets for example) any comparison using such a sound card IMHO is pointless. (Older cards with certain versions of the ViA Envy chipset usually do not resample. Still seen in some prosumer cards made by EMU, M-Audio, and a few others.)
Umm, "sparkle" is a term I would apply to very few recent cds, and not a lot of older ones, FWIW that is an attribute I hear mainly on other technically better formats.
CD to HDD
Kevin
I am an old fart, and my son is now 41. The downloaded flac files referred to were not sourced from .MegaPoop3.
In some cases Accurate Rip results were included. I agree that most recently posted stuff is from low resolution sources,and designed for maximum titles to fit in the minimum of space.
SandyK
Kevin
I am an old fart, and my son is now 41. The downloaded flac files referred to were not sourced from .MegaPoop3.
In some cases Accurate Rip results were included. I agree that most recently posted stuff is from low resolution sources,and designed for maximum titles to fit in the minimum of space.
SandyK
Re: CD to HDD
How about a clue as to where to download these files so I can find out for myself? I do download stuff in higher bit formats on archive.org from time to time.
Linn records and quite a few others distribute native 88.2kHz/96kHz/24 bit pcm via flac and I have some of these in fact and find them to sound relatively good to great, unfortunately most of the music they offer leaves me beyond cold.
I am just curious about the comments with regard to .flac format files as this does not parallel my experiences at all, I have found it to be a pretty accurate reflection (to the best of my critical listening abilities) of the transcoded source material I have compared it to. (Not distinguishable in critical listening with several experienced listeners.) This all supposes having sufficient processing headroom that no errors are ever introduced into the stream.
I am not really a fan of pcm as implemented in the cd standard in any case - I think more bits and a somewhat higher sample rate are required for good performance. (In areas that you have highlighted as also being important to you.)
sandyK said:
How about a clue as to where to download these files so I can find out for myself? I do download stuff in higher bit formats on archive.org from time to time.
Linn records and quite a few others distribute native 88.2kHz/96kHz/24 bit pcm via flac and I have some of these in fact and find them to sound relatively good to great, unfortunately most of the music they offer leaves me beyond cold.
I am just curious about the comments with regard to .flac format files as this does not parallel my experiences at all, I have found it to be a pretty accurate reflection (to the best of my critical listening abilities) of the transcoded source material I have compared it to. (Not distinguishable in critical listening with several experienced listeners.) This all supposes having sufficient processing headroom that no errors are ever introduced into the stream.
I am not really a fan of pcm as implemented in the cd standard in any case - I think more bits and a somewhat higher sample rate are required for good performance. (In areas that you have highlighted as also being important to you.)
CD to HDD
Kevin
The Newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds .lossless. has heaps of these files, but I no longer bother with them.
I have also downloaded a couple from Linn Records, but much of their material isn't to my taste.
I quite liked "Claire Martin-Too Darn Hot, which for a .flac file didn't turn out too bad.
U.S.A. residents also have available quite a few choices of 96/24 recordings available for downloading in "lossless"
formats. As a non U.S.A. resident I did manage to purchase a couple of their 96/24 downloads before they updated their software.
If you want the ultimate quality, have a look at http://www.referencerecordings.com/HRx1.asp
You can purchase direct copies from their masters on DVD, specially burned for you.I have been waiting for the Aussie dollar to improve further before paying US$45
for an album, plus International postage.
Regarding the sound quality differences, you do need high resolution gear and good speakers to notice these differences. If your playback equipment is very good, the differences can be quite striking.
I use an Oppo DVD981HD which has had the Switch Mode Power Supply slightly modified by replacing the main bridge rectifier diodes with the much faster BYV26C.
In addition, I have a 100nF 630V capacitor fitted across the main electrolytic capacitor that they feed.
I also have self adhesive felt fitted inside the cover, various points of the chassis and around the transport area .
The result is an improved SQ via SPDIF, as well as improved (glossier) video via both S-VHS and HDMI.
This then feeds a heavily modified Musical Fidelity X-DAC V3, which has also had its supplied A.C. plugpack replaced by an outboard dual regulated +-15V supply
which is followed by a shunt regulator designed by John Linsley Hood in the late 80s (?)
After that there is a Class A preamplifier,and a Class A 15W/Channel amplifier both based on an original Silicon Chip design, but also incorporating JLH PSU Addons in both.
My speakers are old DCM QED which are capable of a fabulous soundstage.Both the preamp and the amplifier
have a special front end balancing modification which further improves the soundstage and the signal to noise.
This special modification has been verified to work in a couple of current DIYAudio threads, such as the SC ULD2 thread.
SandyK
Kevin
The Newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds .lossless. has heaps of these files, but I no longer bother with them.
I have also downloaded a couple from Linn Records, but much of their material isn't to my taste.
I quite liked "Claire Martin-Too Darn Hot, which for a .flac file didn't turn out too bad.
U.S.A. residents also have available quite a few choices of 96/24 recordings available for downloading in "lossless"
formats. As a non U.S.A. resident I did manage to purchase a couple of their 96/24 downloads before they updated their software.
If you want the ultimate quality, have a look at http://www.referencerecordings.com/HRx1.asp
You can purchase direct copies from their masters on DVD, specially burned for you.I have been waiting for the Aussie dollar to improve further before paying US$45
for an album, plus International postage.
Regarding the sound quality differences, you do need high resolution gear and good speakers to notice these differences. If your playback equipment is very good, the differences can be quite striking.
I use an Oppo DVD981HD which has had the Switch Mode Power Supply slightly modified by replacing the main bridge rectifier diodes with the much faster BYV26C.
In addition, I have a 100nF 630V capacitor fitted across the main electrolytic capacitor that they feed.
I also have self adhesive felt fitted inside the cover, various points of the chassis and around the transport area .
The result is an improved SQ via SPDIF, as well as improved (glossier) video via both S-VHS and HDMI.
This then feeds a heavily modified Musical Fidelity X-DAC V3, which has also had its supplied A.C. plugpack replaced by an outboard dual regulated +-15V supply
which is followed by a shunt regulator designed by John Linsley Hood in the late 80s (?)
After that there is a Class A preamplifier,and a Class A 15W/Channel amplifier both based on an original Silicon Chip design, but also incorporating JLH PSU Addons in both.
My speakers are old DCM QED which are capable of a fabulous soundstage.Both the preamp and the amplifier
have a special front end balancing modification which further improves the soundstage and the signal to noise.
This special modification has been verified to work in a couple of current DIYAudio threads, such as the SC ULD2 thread.
SandyK
CD to HDD
Kevin
In my previous reply, I omitted to give
http://www.hdtracks.com/ as the source of U.S.A. 24/96 downloads.
SandyK
Kevin
In my previous reply, I omitted to give
http://www.hdtracks.com/ as the source of U.S.A. 24/96 downloads.
SandyK
Guys,
FWIW I have a LG Blu-Ray writer too and have used EAC to make copies of .wav files to HDD from CD as well as a Blu-Ray CD-R copy of the same CD using both the Blu-Ray writer in an external case via USB and the LG DVD writer in laptop. Playback from WinXP laptop has used XXHighEnd player engine #1 via USB to my Trends UD10 DAC with direct output from the DAC chip via Elna Silmic caps to headphones. External UD10 DAC powered by a 4.8V NiHM 3700 mAh battery designed for model aircraft applications.
The files sound different to my ears with the Blu-Ray ripped files having improved SQ along the lines described by SandyK. I know shite about how computers write or access data but something must be being done differently with the different rips, irrespective that the incestuous file analysis saying it is bit-for-bit the same.
As for Blu-Ray written CD-Rs compared to CD written CD-Rs played though my gear or friends gear, Blu-ray wins hands down, simply no contest.
.. oneday
FWIW I have a LG Blu-Ray writer too and have used EAC to make copies of .wav files to HDD from CD as well as a Blu-Ray CD-R copy of the same CD using both the Blu-Ray writer in an external case via USB and the LG DVD writer in laptop. Playback from WinXP laptop has used XXHighEnd player engine #1 via USB to my Trends UD10 DAC with direct output from the DAC chip via Elna Silmic caps to headphones. External UD10 DAC powered by a 4.8V NiHM 3700 mAh battery designed for model aircraft applications.
The files sound different to my ears with the Blu-Ray ripped files having improved SQ along the lines described by SandyK. I know shite about how computers write or access data but something must be being done differently with the different rips, irrespective that the incestuous file analysis saying it is bit-for-bit the same.
As for Blu-Ray written CD-Rs compared to CD written CD-Rs played though my gear or friends gear, Blu-ray wins hands down, simply no contest.
.. oneday
phofman said:
phofman
From post 54
"A comparison CD has been burned and is now on it's way to DIYAudio moderator Hugo, in Belgium, who will be sharing some of the files around."
Hugo has already received a copy of the Registered Post International Customs Declaration. (yesterday)
SandyK
P.S. Also check post 52. It would have taken up too much space to post the same for the whole 18 tracks.
After reading this thread I went out and bought an LG BluRay drive. Last night I used it to rip Debbie Gibson's 'Out of the Blue' album, the results were phenomenal, much better than with my NEC CDR-84 drive. For example on 'Shake Your Love' the soundstage really opens up, and the bass on 'Only in my Dreams' is tight without being boomy. The only downside was that after using it I found that my watch had stopped and all of my house keys were bent.
Tonight I'm going to rip all of my Tiffany CDs...
Tonight I'm going to rip all of my Tiffany CDs...
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