Lossless file VS CD

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by beppe, May 22, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. John Dyson

    John Dyson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fishers, Indiana
    I agree that 'picking a team' is a worthless exercise. However, sometimes people might not have a turntable, or someitmes reading disk files is more convienient than reaching over to the CD drive...
    For me, using a turntable would be a pain in the b*tt, but I used to use one all of the time back when there was no CD, pre-recorded cassettes were usually terrible, and I didn' thave a reel-to-reel so I could go down to the record store and get the latest top 40 release on RTR tape :). (I am NOT serious.)

    Point being -- people might by default 'pick a team' just as matter of circumstance, and not really choosing that 'I'll only use MP3' or whatever like that.

    IN my case, I have several situations and several purposes, so sometimes I have a bimodal usage.

    I do think that 'marrying one or the other' is a matter of personal choice, but I don't think that it is helpful to chose one or the other for 'political' reasons. (I suspect that it is a good thing to avoid a dead format, or it might be beneficial to support using a very popular format just because it might be easier to get recorded material in that form.)

    John
     
    mozcho and Stone Turntable like this.
  2. BillTubes

    BillTubes Well-Known Member

    I have ripped 1000’s of CDs with many Blu-Rays and digital downloads and have compiled a large digital library. It does take time and patience to maintain the metadata to keep the music organized.
    The convience of quickly finding individual tracks is worth it to me and saves a lot of time changing disks.

    Since i grew up with vinyl i do understand the joy of looking at album sleeves but i still vote for files over physical media
     
    Kristofa, shaboo, billnunan and 3 others like this.
  3. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    They stopped making any LPs of interest to me some decades ago, so the path to digital file playback was clear.
     
    mozcho and JimmyCool like this.
  4. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    I buy a CD specifically to get the lossless PCM file on it. I sometimes read the booklets, but mostly I just want the music. CDs are also usually cheaper than a lossless download. Also, can't get my MFSL stuff via lossless download, only hybrid SACD. I store all mine across a couple of 3tb WD hard drives.
     
    Kristofa, mozcho, Newton John and 3 others like this.
  5. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    Blu-rays and DVDs I just watch the original disc. For one, ripping a Blu-ray or DVD requires you to bypass DRM. In the United States, this is illegal. This is also a much more time-consuming process than ripping CDs. A typical Blu-ray takes anywhere from 30-50GB. You need LOTS of hard drive space for a large collection. The other option is compressing your rips which depending on how you encode them (h264, h265) will take even more time if you want the quality to turn out good.
     
    klockwerk likes this.
  6. BillTubes

    BillTubes Well-Known Member

    :targettiphat:All hidef flac takes up more data space. Using an external drive is pretty cheap. Would like to get SSD drive when prices come down
     
    JimmyCool likes this.
  7. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    The 7,000+ songs that I have on my iPod Classic 160 have all been individually loaded from cds (as high bit rate Mp3's) - I have never "downloaded" music files to my iTunes library,
    or music player. And, much of my music is needle-drops from better mastered vinyl. The player may be "convenient", but I also try to maintain "quality control".
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  8. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    I can see myself eventually getting a music "server" to load my favorite music to (as .wav files). I would keep my cd and vinyl collection, which I consider at this point irreplaceable.
     
  9. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    I remember intensely comparing cds to lps back in the 90s. I'd set levels, put on my headphones and cue them up to allow switching and forth between sources. There were always noticeable differences, and not always just noise from the condition of the lp. I did this quite a few times. Also did it to compare the quality of my cassette deck.

    After ripping my cds to AIFFs, I did this maybe a couple times. I couldn't hear any difference so I lost interest. My cd player also acts as my DAC so I am hearing the data through the same processor.

    At this point, I listen to a new cd once on the cdp before ripping it. After ripping, the cd is put in storage with the rest of them in a closet.
     
    mozcho and JimmyCool like this.
  10. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    This!
     
  11. Ted Dinard

    Ted Dinard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston suburb
    It's a bit embarrassing for me to say this. I'm not a Luddite or technophobe. But maybe I speak for some other poor lost souls here. So here goes.

    When I look at what I'd have to do to use lossless files, a NAS, etc., my boredom and perplexity just snowball. I started reading about setting it up, again, as the result of this thread, and my eyes just glazed over. I can barely understand what it is and how it works.

    I know I could figure it out. I could buy a NAS and stick all the CDs I have (but not SACDs, right?) losslessly onto hard drives in it, and also all the stray MP3s on my computer I've gathered over the years. Then I could figure out the very best software to use, gathering innumerable opinions on that question, to cast the music from the NAS to some device attached (via RCA inputs!) to my vintage receiver. (Right? You see my level of having no idea of what I'm talking about.)

    Or I could just plug a CD player into my receiver, put a CD into it, and play it. Sounds good that way, and it's the path of least resistance.
     
    ChuckyBuck likes this.
  12. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    People have been ripping sacd’s since Sony released the ps3.
     
  13. Ted Dinard

    Ted Dinard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston suburb
    Oh. Never heard of it.
     
  14. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    lots of threads on the subject here on the Hoffman forum if you want to check it out!
     
  15. BillTubes

    BillTubes Well-Known Member

    Understand setting up a music server takes time and patience. Since I am retired I can feed my obsession to find the best recording masters.
     
  16. Claude Benshaul

    Claude Benshaul Forum Resident

    Actually it doesn't but it depends on your definition of a music server.

    A full solution including a separate NAS disk storage, streaming to multiple zones and setting rules for switching between them does. A PC or Mac based music server connected to a a DAC or amplifier with a local disk library is just one download and a few mouse clicks.

    Its the feeding and caring that takes time and planning. The main time consuming task is sorting out the metadata and tags catalog the collection and turn a bunch of digital files into a nice presentation which is a pleasure to browse.
     
    klockwerk likes this.
  17. BillTubes

    BillTubes Well-Known Member

    You must not have foobar2000 in your setup ;)
     
  18. thxphotog

    thxphotog Camera Nerd Cycling Nerd Guitar Nerd Dietary Nerd

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Big analog guy here, but with the lossless files I listen to a lot of music I normally wouldn't. Ripped CDs to flac and into a small portable drive plugged into the back of my Oppo.

    Having the entire Bowie, Petty, Stones etc catalogs instantly accessible is amazing. (controlled by my iPad or OPPO remote) I also copy my favorite singles to a 'singles' folder where I have probably 24 hours worth of favorite tracks.

    Another cool thing is customizing the artwork. So if I'm playing the stones for example, I might have my favorite in-concert photo of Keef attached to Brown Sugar and so on.
     
    mozcho and klockwerk like this.
  19. klockwerk

    klockwerk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio USA
    foobar2000 is the bomb! Works easily for anyone.

    This is a big thing, having a program to display all the associated artwork in hi res. Finding great scans at 1200 by 1200 pixels (or better) can take awhile, but is well worth it. Especially for bands that provided great artwork with their albums, like Tangerine Dream.
     
    mozcho and BillTubes like this.
  20. BillTubes

    BillTubes Well-Known Member

    Yes love foobar2000 but not user friendly to setup certainly worth the effort.
    I use monkeymote for control so artwork is in my hand on ipad while listening... almost like old days
     
    mozcho likes this.
  21. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    I prefer MusicBee. Set it up to automatically index your music files. Use the converter to push MP3, AAC, FLAC or ALAC files out to your mobile device. I haven't found anything that beats it.
     
    mozcho and klockwerk like this.
  22. elvisizer

    elvisizer Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Jose
    Roon!
     
    Kristofa and toddfan like this.
  23. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    I prefer MediaMonkey for the following reasons (this applies to MediaMonkey Gold, the paid version):
    • It's easy to use, if you've used any music management program you should have little trouble using it.
    • Allows me to organize my music on my hard drive and on my digital audio player (DAP) any way I choose, and will rearrange the music when you update the metadata.
    • Skinnable (I have about 20 skins on my computer, including some that make it look like versions of iTunes, Windows Media Player, and the Zune Player). One of the things I find most irritating about iTunes and Media Go (the music management program I used before returning to MediaMonkey) is that you are stuck with one look (generally black items on a white background) that is glaring to look at, making it very tiring on the eyes over time (although turning down the brightness helps a bit)
    • Allows you to do automatic on-the-fly conversion in the format you choose as it loads music on your DAP.
    • Very powerful autoplaylist function that, combined with proper tagging, allows you to automatically create any playlist you choose.
    • Very good metadata tag editor.
    • If it doesn't already have a set up for a DAP, you can easily set it up yourself.
    • Full-featured CD ripper, that can rip to any format you choose.
     
    mozcho likes this.
  24. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Of course, SACDs too. I have thousands ripped.
     
  25. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I don't but there are alternatives.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine