Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

simoncn · (This post was last modified: 08-03-2015 10:10 by simoncn.)

(08-03-2015 05:36)Andre Gosselin Wrote: Thanks Simon for your prompt reply. I followed your instructions and was able to correctly transcode the dsf track. I however had to lower the frequency to "dsf:wav24;96", as transcoding to 176kHz resulted in streaming interruptions every 15secs or so. I suspect my wifi bandwidth is the culprit here, since transcoding a standard flac file using "flac:wav24;176" results in the same problem.

I have a flac 24/192 version of the same track, which plays without problem on my setup without transcoding. I did numerous and carefull listenings of this 24/192 non transcoded track, compared to the dsf version transcoded with a "wav24;96" setting. Quite honestly, I did not hear any significant gain with the dsf version, and I even admit that quite a few times I favored the flac 24/192 non transcoded version of the the dsf transcoded one.

Maybe this is normal, if transcoding dsf to "wav24;96" severely downgrades the quality of a DSD file, and if this quality requires transcoding to DoP in order to be preserved. I am not knowledgeable enough about the DSD world to tell.

Transcoding a DSD file to PCM will remove any quality advantage of the original DSD file. Also, transcoding to 24/96 isn't ideal. A bettter choice would be wav24;88 because the original DSD sampling rate is an exact multiple of 88200 Hz. Even so, I would expect 24/192 to be audibly superior to 24/88.

To get the quality benefits claimed for DSD, you would need to use DoP with a DSD-capable DAC. I don't have a DSD DAC, so I can't comment on whether this does produce better quality than PCM. Alternatively, the DSD benefits might be evident if you transcode to PCM at 24/176 or (preferably) higher.

Quote:I would be very much interested in comments from more experienced users.

I would as well. Smile

Quote:As an aside, I once mistakingly set during my tests the transcoding property to "dsf:wav24;96k" (notice the trailing "k"), and this setting was accepted. The transcoded stream was seen in BubbleUPnP as "WAV | 352.8 kHz | 24bits", as if minimserver ignored the "96k" altogether and set the frequency to the default setting.

Thanks for letting me know about this. I will fix it in the next update.

Quote:Also, I tried hard during the last month to differentiate in hearing sessions between non transcoded flac files (16/48, 24/96), and the same files transcoded using "flac:wav24". On my setup, wav transcoding does not seem to produce significant improvements in sound quality. This is not to criticize in any way the transcoding done by minimstreamer. I just want to mention that, maybe, the advantages of transcoding to wav are dependent on the type of hardware used.

Regards

I've heard similar comments from some other users. The primary purpose of transcoding is to make the file playable on a renderer that can't handle the original format. Some users have found that transcoding also improves sound quality and others have found no difference.