MistaChy Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Any lossless audio listeners here? I'm just now hip to flac and foobar 2000... Its sounding good, oh what treats I've been missing. Anyone has any other recommendations for lossless audio? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I use .flac in my HTPC. I have all my music ripped to .flac format and stored in my HTPC, which is set up to play lossless audio via JR Media Center. Makes listening to my entire collection effortless. Foobar can also provide lossless music via your pc, as long as you take the steps necessary to bypass windows' kmixer. The Kmixer will re-sample your files from their original format during playback so they will not be lossless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 I use .flac in my HTPC. I have all my music ripped to .flac format and stored in my HTPC, which is set up to play lossless audio via JR Media Center. Makes listening to my entire collection effortless. Foobar can also provide lossless music via your pc, as long as you take the steps necessary to bypass windows' kmixer. The Kmixer will re-sample your files from their original format during playback so they will not be lossless. someone mentioned the asio plug ins, how do i do the bypass... and what is a HTPC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 the way im playing the FLAC audio right now is through my ATI hi definition Video/Soundcard via HDMI directly to the receiver from my desktop, and my SLI HD Audio out on my laptop via HDMI directly to the receiver. Will that suffice as lossless. The SLI supports up to 192kHz/24bits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuyOtherSoundEquipment Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 HTPC = Home Theater Personal Computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 HTPC = Home Theater Personal Computer thanks... and i think i might be already bypassing the k-mixer if i have it setup in Foobar to play directly through my hidefinition audio device. that audio device goes directly to the receiver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdotsu Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I have a server dedicated for storing all my music photos and videos. I use a program called firefly which transcodes all my flac files to wav to all my machines with itunes and then I use tversity to do the same thing to send the flac to my ps3. So far is working very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 the receiver says 96k next to stereo... what does that mean? that sounds like its working ?? lossless? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Olive Music Server, FLAC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Olive Music Server, FLAClooks nice, but possibly unnecessary in my case if i can make sure my laptop isnt using k-mixer. i have about 400 gigs of music... im not so sure the server can hold it all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 this is how i figure im getting lossless.... i have it set to 24 bit post processing. wasapi is supposed to be bit exact Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Olive Music Server, FLAClooks nice, but possibly unnecessary in my case if i can make sure my laptop isnt using k-mixer. i have about 400 gigs of music... im not so sure the server can hold it all Olive offers a terabyte, which is what I use, it has plenty of capacity, but I would agree a laptop is a cheaper option, not sure what DACs you use there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 What I want to know is fully lossless from what? An already compromised source? Is it just a way to do the same thing we all do except easier once you have it set up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Olive Music Server, FLAClooks nice, but possibly unnecessary in my case if i can make sure my laptop isnt using k-mixer. i have about 400 gigs of music... im not so sure the server can hold it all Olive offers a terabyte, which is what I use, it has plenty of capacity, but I would agree a laptop is a cheaper option, not sure what DACs you use there. i have the wasabi option set in foobar, then i go directly from my HD video/sound card straight to the receiver. im not sure how i would be using the lossy k-mixer... so im under the empression that im geting bit exact. look at the picture i posted above.im not sure what a DAC is though.... im green when it comes to audio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 What I want to know is fully lossless from what? An already compromised source? Is it just a way to do the same thing we all do except easier once you have it set up?what source do you feel is compromised? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 What I want to know is fully lossless from what? An already compromised source? Is it just a way to do the same thing we all do except easier once you have it set up?what source do you feel is compromised? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 What I want to know is fully lossless from what? An already compromised source? Is it just a way to do the same thing we all do except easier once you have it set up?what source do you feel is compromised? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Oh boy, I have a bad feeling about this, but here goes. First, I don't want to get into any arguments about the merits of lossless vs. lossy audio. If you like what you are listening to, great, enjoy and don't worry about this thread. I like lossless flac rips of all my music and it works for me. Having said that, here are some very basic answers to the questions asked. Lossless refers to the fact that my .flac files are bit for bit exact copies of the data that is in the original CD. (.flac is just one file format. There are lots of other lossless formats available.) It also refers to the fact that lossless playback does NOT allow the Windows Kmixer to re-sample the data and output it to your audio card at a different sampling rate. MistaChy: You likely have a steep learning curve ahead of you, but it will be worth it if you want the convenience of listening to your music collection in its original recorded state (i.e. exactly like your CD) but without the hassle of having to change CD's all the time. You also will get all the benefits of instantly running searches on your PC (HTPC, Home Theater PC) by artist, song, album etc. Although I am not familiar with your audio card, unless you have gone to some trouble to set it up correctly it is unlikely you are getting lossless audio. The easiest way to test it is this. While playing a song, go to your control panel and have windows play any of its sounds. If you can hear the music as well as the windows .wav file (both at the same time), you are hearing the result of the windows Kmixer re-sampling ALL the audio. Therefore, no lossless bit perfect audio there. Another way is to download any of the many DTS or AC3 files available on the net and play it via your setup. If you get just white noise, you are NOT running bit perfect lossless bitstream. When windows re-samples the DTS or AC3 files, it will destroy the data and you will hear only noise. If you do a have lossless bit perfect bitstream, you will get the recorded sound. You will also note your receiver, or processor will show a DTS or Dolby Digital signal is being decoded. Here are some examples: http://www.kellyindustries.com/sounds.html My guess is that you will find that you do not have your setup as bit perfect. Not all audio cards, high end or not, can send these bitstreams to your processor. I know the Audiotrak Prodigy cards and the Chaintech AV-710 can do it. BTW, the AV-710 sold for about $27 when it was available. It contains the same chip the expensive Prodigy cards carried at the time. In my setup, because the AV-710 driver does not have built in ASIO capability, I use a secondary ASIO plugin with Foobar and JRMediaCenter to pass along the undisturbed signal. If you are really interested in learning how to set this up, got to the AVSForums and in the Home Theater Computers run a search for bit perfect lossless audio. Same goes for Goggle. You will find more information that you will want to study. Lot's of 'how to' posts and quite a bit of information behind the lossless technology. Good luck, and enjoy the journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistaChy Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Although I am not familiar with your audio card, unless you have gone to some trouble to set it up correctly it is unlikely you are getting lossless audio. The easiest way to test it is this. While playing a song, go to your control panel and have windows play any of its sounds. If you can hear the music as well as the windows .wav file (both at the same time), you are hearing the result of the windows Kmixer re-sampling ALL the audio. no, i can not play anything. im using the wasapi driver and it restricts anything else from playing while i got a lossless audio track playing in foobar... so im good to go. and it wasnt too much trouble getting it set up, it was quite easy. there is a secondary windows audio session API file that i had to download and use, and its working. see the previous post with the photo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Most excellent. I set my stuff up a few years ago and it was not 'easy'. It was fun, but not easy. Glad they are moving to supply software and hardware for the audio enthusiast. You should not have any problems playing DD and DTS files if all is well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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