Sound of FLAC?

[GerardA]

Hope this FLAC reboot thing gets fixed in the next release though.

Wasn't it suppossed to be fixed with the latest release?

[PeterSt]

Ok, what do you both mean by "fixed" ?
Was something broken ?

[GerardA]

Welll as I recall it there was a need to reboot after changing the play-list for best sound quality. Somewhere you said this would not be necessary anymore for the next release.

[PeterSt]

Ah, did I say that ? Not that I know of ...

Maybe I said that I would try to get this done (indeed) ... ever ...

Regards,
Peter

[CoenP]

The second post in this thread:

Like I suggested before (but never received a response to that) - Set "Don't play at all", click Play on the first track of the album while Unattended is activated - let all rest and reboot now. Next get your AutoHotkey running (this might need some additional "setup" for that by now, because since 0.9z-6 it is expected to be loaded by XX automatically) and use Alt-P.

This way you will be using the same WAVs as implied by any other conversion (like from Foobar) and nothing can have happened to let it sound different (from that Foobar conversions), unless you put the Foobar output in a completely different place.

If then the difference is as clearly noticeable, let me know.

Also notice that as implied by the earlier posts about this, I can do something about it, if only the above procedure indeed prooves that this makes the difference. As long as this is not clearly proven I won't do a thing (and indeed, I don't test these things just because of a lack of time for it - I'm not good at A-B stuff either).

Thanks !
Peter

So i heard a clearly noticable difference (see following posts). That is that the  obvious and annoying difference between FLAC and wav was a good as gone after above procedure (rebooting and all). If you can hear a difference between xx versions you should be able to hear this one easily.

My question about the fix (first post on this page) was about your last remark. So what do you consider as proof?

Regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

It seems that a few in this thread smoked too much. All I ant to say is : try to read carefully and don't twist all upside down maybe. So, read back on what happened with your trials. You proved it sufficiently enough (or ?). Did I say anything further about it ? no.

But then another one comes along with the message that it should have been "fixed" in a previous version. All I said is that I didn't know anything about *that*. But of course contender #1 (you) reacts to that now. And this is eactly how this comes about :

This is a very nice comedy act.

Now, all is set, right ? No, it is not.

My question about the fix (first post on this page) was about your last remark.

This reads like there's a question about a fix in the first page. But I don't see it. Nobody talked about a fix but GerardA.
And all *I* said is that I maybe could let it work without change in SQ - see procedure and if only that would help. Now, might anyone think that such a thing is as easy as a fix or should be called like that because it looks like to be an error ...

Oh boy.

[PeterSt]

Maybe I said that I would try to get this done (indeed) ... ever ...

Maybe for better clarity : here the "this" should have been emphasized or better layed out by me. So, the "this" is about what Coen prooved to be helping, and (only ?) theoretically something can be done about it. Practically ? I must first think of the how. So, this is about the "ever".

But no way this has been talked about before to the sense GerardA implies. Notice though that this looks the most similar to "your" RAMDisk exeriences, where people manually copying the files into there perceeived better SQ than letting XX do it. Still I don't recall that in a next release this would be "fixed", but I most probably will have said the same : maybe I can do something so that the SQ difference disappears.

Lastly about the FLAC subject again :
The ever release notes going along with the "Don't start playback at all" setting, told about to let it rest for a while after the initial "Play" had been pressed. Not the same as a reboot, but that may help too. As inconvenient and maybe even worse.

Finally, nobody suggests that you now all need reboots for a better SQ. I only asked Coen to try that out. Right ?
So now we know that it helps.

And now how to let this effect work by other (more convenient) means ...
I don't know (yet).

Regards,
Peter

[GerardA]

Peter,
On the 12th of july you replied in the 5-02 thread:


The next version will sustain this ...
(if all is right).

So that made me think you would have the solution but maybe my english understanding is at trouble here.

Anyway it's allways nice things can still be improved

[PeterSt]

Gerard, really ...

Of course our english isn't the best - mine ahead. But tell me, what has this to do with the FLAC thing ??
I see NO relation at all. Zilch.

However, the spatiousness I reported about in that other topic - you don't want to know how many times I wanted to report the last couple of months that this is now there all the time. I never did though, because too many things were happening at my side anyway (NOS1-USB).
So, whatever it was I pormised there became true. Not only for me, but also for you (with a few things hidden at this moment, so watch it when I (need to) refer to this later).

Please notice : I feel that somewhere this can be related to the FLAC thing, but I don't recall how or where. Just saying - just in case.

Anyway Gerard - All is to go step by step because it needs all the learning. If this weren't so, all was 4 years back as how it is today. And ...

Please notice : This topic goes a little strange, but this doesn't prevent all from the sole fact that I (no, we !) need guys like you to get hold of whatever it is *I* may not expect at all. Never forget this, no matter what my response might be in particular situations.

This little thing concluded (for your Gerard) : it should not be so that you need that reboot to reobtain good SQ (which sure could have been so before). But I don't see any relation to the FLAC thing here. Maybe you do, but I don't. That's why my response is how it is.
Lastly, the FLAC thing has been talked about before, but nobody took up the challenge back then to try it as suggested by me earlier in this topic. Coen now did, and AGAIN this is something to say "great thanks !" for. Also -might it be confusing- totally unrelated to the confusement in this topic.

Don't let this confusement undervalue the real value of it ...
Peter

[GerardA]

Well I am happy I don't have to reboot!
But then I get/got confused about the reboot reported here when playing Flac. Since I play a lot of flac, no wav's actually I thought we still need the reboot. But I guess it is not the big thing it looked like.
So the main point is flacs sound different/worse then wav?

[christoffe]

So the main point is flacs sound different/worse then wav?

Hi,

on my system the SQ with wave files is superior.

Joachim

[hwk]

Hi All,
I don't hear a noticeable difference in SQ between FLAC and WAV in Pop and Rock, at least when I ripped them myself with EAC. The FLACS I downloaded from the net, at least the free torrents, were most of the time sounding stressy and they were not useable for me.
For jazz and classical music, thus music mostly recorded by microphones from acoustic instruments and vocals, I only use WAV-rips, to be absolutely sure, that no ambiance and roominfo is thrown away in the proces
greetz, HW

[PeterSt]

For people interested in this :

Watch for 0.9z-7 ...

[ivo]

In times when RAMDISK was popular here, what I did is I wrote a little batch script and made it accessible via right click. My way of listening usually is one album/CD per session, so before playback I select all tracks, right click and choose my script (called FlacToWav) and it converts all FLACs into WAVs and stores them in XX "premises". Then I hit PLAY and enjoy.
So, now I actually am planning to start using this script again. I see this as very easy workaround for the sound differences between flacs and wavs. If someone is interested into this script, give a shot.

[ivo]

Few days back I decided to switch back to the script and discovered that I had wiped it away together with my Vista install
Afterwards, started to recall how I did that and discovered again that that was not the script, but rather small process how I did that.
Now, I re-did it and this time the process includes small script as well.
But the main message is that in my setup WAVs outperform FLACs!!!
Will try tonight post here the process + script, how quickly turn FLACs into WAVs before playback via XX.
Have to run now...

Ivo