One helpful feature in a player is a "no gaps between tracks" option, really nice for long continuous programs in small segments each with its own track number. E.g., R. Strauss's Eine Alpinsinfonie becomes ein Albtraum without it.
Charlie, that depends on your perspective. It's still a factor of two in money and time.
For me that counts.
Jan
Ah, not so fast, Jan! 😉 FLAC needs a source file to produce the FLAC product. Then you have TWO files takign up 1.5 times the original space. Or you have to delete the "original", however, that seems rather backwards to me. Also, FLAC requires resources to create, as the coding is not trivial. It is relatively lightweight on playback, but more so than just playing native WAV, etc. Also, let's say you have lots of files decide want to convert them to FLAC. Isn't that also representing "money and time" that need to be invested?
I think there are two camps here and not much middle ground. It's not hurting anyone if you want to move everything to FLAC, nor it is a problem if you stick with the original format. So this thread has just become another internet flame war that is much to do about nothing, and I should probably never have posted about it in the first place. I didn't really answer the OPs questions, either. Looks like I am the troll here! Alas, I am just sitting around waiting for a bunch of parts to arrive so I can start an amplifier project and am pouring that nervous energy into posting about trivialities.
My apologies to all! Hopefully I will soon be otherwise occupied! 😛
Well if you start at that point, the odds are even better for Flac.
Jan
Jan
It is based on linkwitz Riley, I designed the PCB layout on acad and etched the board. Signals from the filter pass into 3 stereo digipots all controlled from a 18f4525 pic processor, optical encoder controls each pair of amplifiers from selector switch, balance adjustment also built in, LCD display shows attenuation on each channel.
Those interested in learning more about FLAC file format may want to read what I posted almost 3 years ago.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...formats-such-as-flac-wav.340849/#post-5869138
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...formats-such-as-flac-wav.340849/#post-5869138
I’ve been using a Bryston BDP-1 for several years now. At one point I tried the RPi HAT route, at one point listening to the same material on both simultaneously and switching back and forth between sources.
They were close - close enough that I could have lived with either - but the Bryston was audibly better to my ears, in my system.
Add the hassle of configuring the Pi, and the fussiness about proper shut down, and the Bryston becomes a no brainer, especially given that they can be had all day long for $500.
They were close - close enough that I could have lived with either - but the Bryston was audibly better to my ears, in my system.
Add the hassle of configuring the Pi, and the fussiness about proper shut down, and the Bryston becomes a no brainer, especially given that they can be had all day long for $500.
This is critical if you love classical music, or if you have live albums you like to listen to in their entirety.
However, if you're the kind of person who listens to individual tunes only, and especially if you have huge playlists set to random play, then that's not an issue.
Horses for courses, once again.
Agreed about the software installation and configuration fussiness.
I have my RPi3 and powered USB hub on a switched AC outlet strip. To shut down, I just throw the power switch on the outlet strip. Is that a problem? It's been a couple years of this, and no problems for me so far...
I'll propose this:
https://allo.com/sparky/boss-player.html
Add a Raspberry Pi touchscreen and use that to control the music player software of your choice.
Or connect a monitor and mouse, and control it that way.
I'd add a powered USB hub to power a USB hard drive to hold your music.
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I was using Volumio, and I probably did something wrong, but it always seemed to corrupt the image, requiring a reflash, so I had to shut it down on the software side first. There are ways to ensure a clean shutdown but I didn’t have the patience.
Mandatory in my view. Many of Pink Floyd's albums would be unlistenable without gapless playback.
Tom
Not sure what others consider normal for "original source" but most of my original sources are CD's, and I can configure ExactAudioCopy to rip directly to FLAC ... but I prefer to use dBpoweramp to do the WAV-FLAC conversion, and this takes about 30 seconds additional time, which is negligible given the total amount of time a CD takes to rip, name, check tag details, and obtain cover art.
Then do I delete the original WAV file? Hell yes. It's an intermediate format, with no further use.
My other sources are direct downloads, and these are usually FLAC - no conversion necessary (just need to check the tag details).
Hi.
Just for the sake of example, here my setup, similar to the request except it has RCA outputs from a DAC instead of SPDIF output as asked.
Pictures are blurry because of low light.
1. Bottom is a Raspberry Pi add-on board with MSATA harddrive (long time ago. Now, everybody switched to NVME connection, easier to find hardrive at cheaper price). FLAC on it, ripped from CD.
2. Up is Raspberry Pi 3
3. Top is both Reclocker and Allo Piano DAC. (both together are functionnaly similar to the suggest Allo Boss)
2 points
A. Power comes from an additionnal 19V or so power supply. I have to connect it to power the system. And i have been lazy to buy a cable with a switch
But one of the poster mentionned it as an hassle and it can be true.
B. Keeping up with the software update / trial of Volumio or others might not be your cup of tea.
Have a nice day
Just for the sake of example, here my setup, similar to the request except it has RCA outputs from a DAC instead of SPDIF output as asked.
Pictures are blurry because of low light.
1. Bottom is a Raspberry Pi add-on board with MSATA harddrive (long time ago. Now, everybody switched to NVME connection, easier to find hardrive at cheaper price). FLAC on it, ripped from CD.
2. Up is Raspberry Pi 3
3. Top is both Reclocker and Allo Piano DAC. (both together are functionnaly similar to the suggest Allo Boss)
2 points
A. Power comes from an additionnal 19V or so power supply. I have to connect it to power the system. And i have been lazy to buy a cable with a switch
But one of the poster mentionned it as an hassle and it can be true.
B. Keeping up with the software update / trial of Volumio or others might not be your cup of tea.
Have a nice day
FLAC has been the standard for the live music trading scene (e.g. https://archive.org/details/etree) for decades now. The original source is usually the original recording, typically digital but not necessarily. There are standards, which vary somewhat from community to community, regarding tags, file names, and even tracking.
Tracking can be a judgement call, especially when dealing with performances where one song segues into the next; in this case gapless playback is, as has been mentioned wrt classical music and Floyd, critical.