Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo MP3's vs. CD's

Hi Bob, if you computer has a sound card all you need to do is plug in 1/8th stereo to RCA adapter, and plug it into one of the inputs of your AVR. If your computer isn't close to your AVR and you don't want wires all over your living room, but you have a wireless router in your house, look at getting a Squeezebox.

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html

Paul

Flac files are created from material on the original disc. It is a way of making your physical music collection avialable on computer.

Thanks for both of those answers. I figured it was from an original disk.

I think one last question. Playing these from the computer would be easier with a 2809 or a 3809 without spending $299 on a sqeezebox?

You've got me on that one. I have yet to see a good explanation of what the value of various different devices are in playing music. It may have to do with streaming music to various zones or sytems in your house.

You can still turn MP3, WMA, AAC, etc, into FLAC files as well, you just don't get the benefit of a compressed original and there is also no space saving benefit as the FLAC would be pretty much the same size as the MP3 file. To do this you would need to run the files through a converter program.

I have never tried a squeeze box, but for me the 3808 was very easy to get it to start streaming once connected to my network.

Another question.

My Cable provider has several Music channels. I listened briefly to all of them. The sound quality vried considerably from one channel to another. Made me wonder what Sirius or AM Radio would sould like. I've also heard commercials for HD Radio and have no idea what that is. And we also have streaming radio from the computer.

Are any of these thought to be any good for audio quality and how do any of them compare with each other?

Bob, HD radio is Hybrid Digital(not High Definition, as some misinterpret it). The benefit of the digital FM over the analog is that you either get it clear(no hiss, etc.)or you don't get it at all. If the signal would be too weak for digital reception the analog signal(probably somewhat noisy)might be available.

I use the default -5 compression. From what I’ve read higher compression rates take longer to encode and yield diminishing returns in terms of smaller compressed files size. Besides taking longer higher compression rates are suppose to be more labour intensive to decode and can cause playback issues on some portable players.

Fred, have you purchased the full version of Media Monkey? I’m using the free version right now but haven’t decided if I want to commit to the “Monkey” or not. I’ve already committed to storing all my CD rips as FLAC but still not sure what management software I’m going to use.

I am playing with the free version as well. Mine came up with a default compression level of 6.

The only features I have noticed in the pro version that I may use on the pro version are conversion on the fly and volume leveling.

I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to rip my CDs which probably explains the difference in default compression.

I was thinking I might want to use the “Multiple collections” and “AutoPlaylists” features of the full version seeing as AudialsOne has simply overwhelmed me with tracks (15,000 and counting) even though I’ve dialed it back quite a bit.