Network Hard Drives (Streaming Audio)

[mini66]

I understand WAV lossless is one of the best audio formats (not compressed) so I want to stream it to my network hifi streamer (Naim SuperUniti). So I need a network drive that's up to the job...approx. 500GB should do the trick. What's the best I can get for the money?

 

[The_Lhc]

Don't be confused into thinking that compressed means lossy, it doesn't (have to). WAV might be uncompressed but it doesn't support tagging, which can be a real pain when you don't know the the name of the track or the artist or why you haven't got any album art. Losslessly compressed formats such as FLAC or ALAC are much better, same sound quality, full Tag support and take up half the space.

 

[mini66]

Thanks for your reply...What bit of software would I use to save to FLAC?

 

[michael hoy]

Thanks for your reply...What bit of software would I use to save to FLAC?

There are many out there, I use dbpoweramp.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

 

[mini66]

Thanks Michael, what do you think of WMA Lossless?

 

[michael hoy]

Not used this format yet, I use flac.

However possible new car supports WMA and may give it a go then.

If you are not using apple products, I would stick with flac.

 

[mini66]

Thing is I am using Apple products I have saved all my CDs to my iPod touch in Apple Lossless but now I've been told its not a ture lossless format *confused* but I've just treated myself to a Naim hifi and as you know I guess its a top end system so I think I might notice the difference...??

 

[spiny norman]

Thing is I am using Apple products I have saved all my CDs to my iPod touch in Apple Lossless but now I've been told its not a ture lossless format *confused* but I've just treated myself to a Naim hifi and as you know I guess its a top end system so I think I might notice the difference...??

Apple Losless is just as lossless as FLAC: the clue's in the name. And it will work just as well with the SuperUniti. If you really want to have WAVs played out to your SuperUniti, you can always use UPnP server software on your NAS able to transcode the music from ALAC (or FLAC or whatever) to WAV: MinimServer, for example, will do this.

On a more general subject, I really wouldn't bother with network storage as small as 500GB; I'd buy 1TB or even better 2TB. You'll be amazed how fast these things fill up.

 

[MajorFubar]

Exactly. Lossless compression means exactly that. And if you come across some freak who says he can hear the difference betwen WAV, FLAC, and Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC), just smile and ignore him. If there is genuinely a difference on his system, then it will only be because his player is not decoding FLACs and ALACs properly, but I can't think of any players that don't decode FLAC and ALAC properly. Some manufacturers prefer you to use one format over another, but this can only really be because their software is tailored towards uncompressing that format quickly and efficiently in real time. Not sure if Naim has a preferred format.