Digital Output High

[pegwill]

Hi Guys

I need your help. I 'm using a WD Tv live to stream my music. I used EAC to rip my Cds to FLAC. The problem I have is that the output levels from the streamer are very high (not enough to cause clipping) but when converted to analogue through my DAC which feeds my preamp the volume control has to be set at its minimum. My CD player, Phono and Blueray does not output at such high levels and works with the preamp volume control about half way. I'm using Toslink to connect to my DAC the WD TV Live only has this as a digital output.

Any ideas?

Many thanks

 

[Hugh Jazz]

wd tv live => toslink => DAC => preamp ? what dac ? It can be simple. Get a different DAC.

 

[pegwill]

Its got nothing to do with the DAC as it works perfectly well with the CD and Blueray player. It appears to be the output from the WD TV Live Streamer.

But thanks anyway

 

[Hugh Jazz]

Maybe CD is output 16 bit and WD is output 20 or 24 and DAC does not know. Again, what is DAC ? Bluray ? CD ?

 

[pegwill]

Hi

The DAC is a Musical Fidelity M1, CD - Shangling CD-t 80 and a sony blueray. All play Ok. the signal from the WD TV live streamer is ripped from CD (using EAC) fed by HDD to the streamer at normal CD standard (44 - 16 bit) and then upsampled by the DAC.

I need to reduce the gain from the streamer to the DAC. It is here where my problem lies.

Thanks for looking

 

[Hugh Jazz]

Recode 1 FLAC. If success, recode all using batch tool.

 

[pegwill]

Hi
Sorry I dnt quite understand your suggestion.
Do you mean rip a cd using EAC which gives a Flac file - Then recode the file - if so what program do you suggest to recode the flac file.

Regards

 

[Hugh Jazz]

Flac file can be edited for volume. Many ppl use replay gain (file is tagged with voulme decrease) in Foobar software player for this, so all file have same volume. You can do search for edit software and recode for lower volume. Hydrogenaudio.com is good place to ask.
Adjusting Flac Volume? - Hydrogenaudio Forums
I don't use this. I modify hardware. But I think for you maybe modify hardware is not easy and i cannot help because i have not this hardware.

 

[pegwill]

Hi Nanoloop

Your assumption and advice is correct. For some reason Eacaxt Audio Copy (EAC) seems to boost the Replaygain. I could not find any information in EAC regarding this feature. I am converting the Wav file to FLAC and I notice in the front end of the FLAC encoder there is an option to check/uncheck a box regardarding Replaygain - however this did not seem to make any difference. There did not seem to be anyway to adjust any settings though.

Passing the FLAC file through Foobar2k and using the Replaygain adjustment significantly reduced the output that now matches the output of my CD player to the preamp. So all is well.

So it would appear to get the best results rip cd using EAC and then pass through Foobar to reduce the playback gain. It has just left me with an awful lot of files to re-encode.

Thanks for your help.

I hope this is of use to others.

Regards

 

[Hugh Jazz]

The problem is found but the solution is not quick...

Maybe you can try batch encoder ? I see this, but not tried. It can change all files to one setting ?

Download MPC Batch Encoder 2.3.1 Free - Windows frontend for the MusePack encoder and decoder, for Tag and for ReplayGain - Softpedia

 

[Redshift187]

Foobar can batch convert. Just drag folders in, select and and select convert (with appropriate settings for where it'll put the new files of course).