jackman

depends on the server software. J.River, for instance, does support metadata on wav. jack

Ground loops are insidious little devils and can vary with temp and humidity. I find systems to have a lower noise floor with the grounds lifted. There probably are some safety issues, but I think the chances of anything happening are minimal. Of course, with the AC grounds lifted you're no long UL approved. My one question, and I don't have the answer, is it better to lift the ground at the EIC end or the AC plug end? Assuming a quality, shielded, AC cord is it better to shunt the drain to chassis or too the wall. I've tried it both ways and cannot tell any difference.

One more note, I don't intend to plug one manufacturer, but the new NAD M50 server, when ripping a cd, rips it to ram memory and then converts to flac at its leisure. They are adding a wav ripping option in response to dealer and early customer requests, it will be available very soon in a software update. Also, and I'm not sure I'm remembering a conversation accurately, but I think one of the guys working on the software development told me that they found ripping to ram better sounding than real-time conversion.

P.s. I've asked HDTracks if the master was pcm or flac. I'll post if I get a response. I'm hoping it is from a flac file...then I'll know I've got a problem I can fix.

Ladies and Gentleman, thank you all for your comments. I am very willing to accept that flac should be identical to a wav. A special thanks to Julf for mentioning the implantation of the codec could be at fault. I'm using J. River the formerly described laptop as well as at home on a diy music server also running Win7. At home, I heard differences between different programs; in some cases it was very subtle, in other cases, rather obvious. Julf, can you point me to a reference implementation of the flac codec. A big issue I'm finding with computer based audio is everything seems to make a difference. I went so far as to change the coax RCA out on an M-Audio 192 card to BNC with two identical cards in the computer, the coax and the BNC sounded different. I was using identical digital cables...I thought I was on to something until I found that the different pci slots on the Asus mobo seemed to have a different sound. I used to be a compulsive audiophile (obviously, I left that far in the past;-) and would readjust SRA with each record. What strikes me in this case is that so many people hear differences and so many respected scientists say they can't exist. Perhaps it is not possible, but I would love for the people that have the ability to test this gear try to figure out what is causing the differences. In this case, I don't think the issue is jitter related as the Esoteric G-0Rb is accurate to ±0.05 ppb＝±0.00005 ppm. If something is corrupting the flac decode process, we owe it to ourselves to try to figure out how to prevent that. I would appreciate it if the folks who are not hearing differences PM me and let me know what they are using for a hardware and software. To refer to an earlier post, if my equipment is scheisse I want to know about it and improve it.

I just heard from HDTracks the flac and the wav are from the same master. So, my advise would be to opt for the wav when available. I also want to say the sound of the flac files are terrific. However, at least to my ear and in the case of two Jackson Browne cuts the wavs are even better.

Sorry, I didn't realize I was reopening a can of worms. May I just say that I am very jealous of the folks who do not hear these differences, regardless of whether or not they are real. I've been in the audio industry for 35 years and have heard many things that could not exist as differences until something new needed to be found to measure. Take jitter, the math originally presented said there could be no difference in the digital datastreams until we found that jitter made audible differences and, with a few exceptions, the lower jitter units tended to sound subjectively better. Is it all hype and placebo? Maybe, I just count myself in the group that thinks these differences exist, but I do respect the opinions of those who believe the science as we currently understand it. I frankly think the truth is probably somewhere between our divergent opinions. I did convert a 24/192 flac (jackson brown Rosie, from Running on Empty,) to 24/192 wav using Xrecode for the conversion. I found that the wav converted from flac was seemingly identical sounding to the flac file. Ergo, the converted from flac wav file was inferior to the wav. I was sitting in the sweet spot and two coworkers were well off axis. I knew which track was playing, but my coworkers, well off axis, did not know which was file was playing but identified the difference 5 our of 5 times. I recognize that this does not meet ABX criteria as I may have been presenting physical cues that they perceived. FYI, I once participated in an ABX test and identified the compared components 8 out of 10 times. There were two other listeners that scored similarly out of 8 listeners. At my request, when this was done I asked that we compare the sound with and without the ABX box in the circuit. The switcher seemed to negatively affect the sound with both components to about the same degree. I came away thinking that at least some ABX tests may be affected by signal loss or change through the switcher. I have emailed HD Tracks to see if it was the same master for both sources. When time permits, I will try a sampling of other tracks to see if there is any constancy in the results. FYI, the system is a Lenovo laptop G550, 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 4GB Memory running Win7 32bit. DAC is Esoteric D02 with the G-0Rb clock feeding an Esoteric C-03 preamp which is driving a new cj LP125Sa that we are breaking in (about 400 hours so far.) The speakers are Focal 826W, (hardly up to the rest of the system, but there were there and I was lazy.) Cabling is Kimber BBus Ag USB, Kimber KS1126 balanced from the D-02 to the C-03, Kimber KS1026 from the pre to the amp and Kimber KS-3035 speaker cable. I'll let you know if HDTracks replies about whether or not the files are from the same master. Thanks to all for your experiences and thoughts. I apologizing for restarting what I should have realized would start flames. It would be nice if both sides of the debated could be more tolerant of the opinions of others. Remember, opinions are like anuses, everybody has one.

I've just downloaded the 24/192 wav of Jackson Brown's Running on Empty. I was curious to compare it to the flac that I dled when it became available. The wav file is considerably more detailed with a much greater sense of space in the soundstage, (Cocaine and Rosie were the compared tracks.) There is also, for lack of a better way to say it, an organic liquidity to the sound that is more like the sound of an original master tape. The flac, as good as it is, sounds dry, a little congested lacks a top to bottom coherence that is clearly evident in the wav, even when listening casually, off axis. Now, admittedly, I'm using a world class digital front end, an Esoteric D-02 with the Rubidium clock...(not mine, it's demo gear at the store where I work,) it will be interesting to see what sort of difference I hear at home with an M2Tech Young through my very good, but not reference level system. I'm curious to see if HDTracks responds to queries about the file sources. The wav is so superior I have to wonder if the source is the same. I have tried generating flac and wav files taken from LP. I've tried this with the A-D built into a modified TASCAM DR-680, M-Audio 192 pci card and a Mytec A-D, (an older model, I'm afraid I don't recall the model number.) The results, although slightly different flavored, all gave an advantage to the wav file. However, it was much more subtle than what I'm hearing between the Jackson Browne files. The HDTracks flac is so inferior to the wav in this particular case that I'm going to contact HDTracks and see if they will allow me to redownload previous flac purchases in wav. I'm happy to pay a bandwidth fee, but to my ear, the wav file considerably diminishes the value of the flac files. Anybody have similar experience? Any tried the aiff against the flac?