mpeg1 layer 2 audio (mp2 or m2a) files

[skeptic Mike]

I have a fair number of these files from off-air radio recordings. (From a Psion Wavefinder via DAB, and from DVB) As far as I can tell, MinimServer will support these files, but I need to rename the extension from mp2 to mp3 to get that to work. mp3tag seems happy to tag the files with either extension.

I could simply convert the files to flac format, which would make handling them easy, at a cost of disk space, and have the advantage of making it easier to support my non-compliant mpeg1 audio renderer (a google chromecast audio). Alternatively, I could use on-the fly transcoding to .wav format from mp2/3. I don't have any mp3 files, so it wouldn't matter that I was pointlessly transcoding those, although it would prevent the use of my Pure DAB radio, whose wifi isn't reliably up to the bit rate of a 48kHz wave file, but is ok with a 192kb mp2 stream.

I should add that there are no advantages for editing (that is trimming for the part I want) in converting to a different format, lossless cutting works well with mp2 files.

I don't think there's any particularly elegant solution. The best I could think of would be to have a feature in MinimServer that allowed you to define transcoding rules by renderer name. I'd choose name because the reported capabilities often aren't accurate, or in the case of mpeg 1 audio compliance aren't available, and in any case, there may be other reasons such as available connection speed, or tailoring of the sound for specific systems.

e.g.
my portable radio: everything to 44/48kHz 256kb mp3
my living room stereo: everything to (tuned) wav
my chromecast audio: mp2/3 to flac
anything else: as the renderer (claims to) support

I think I could achieve (more or less) this, by running multiple instances of MinimServer preferably with carefully tailored outgoing firewall rules, but that doesn't seem attractive.

So, I was wondering whether any community members have considered this problem, and if so what they have done or would suggest.