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Stannas · 30-08-2017, 06:05

(29-08-2017 12:21)simoncn Wrote: I hadn't realised that the UnitiServe is a player as well as a server. I have looked at the online user manual and it appears that the UnitiServe can only play music from disc files and cannot act as a UPnP renderer to play music from a UPnP renderer such as MinimServer. The UnitiServe is able to act as a UPnP server, but this doesn't help in your situation. I found this information on page 18 (Operation - Playback).

This means that you would need to use a different UPnP renderer for your FLAC/WAV comparison experiment. You suggested doing this on a laptop and this might be possible by installing suitable software on the laptop, but the quality of the laptop sound card would be so poor that any difference between WAV and FLAC would probably be masked by the sound card deficiencies, even if the output from the laptop sound card is routed to a hi-fi system.

You could perhaps borrow a high-quality UPnP renderer from a friend to do the experiment. However, even if the experiment produced satisfactory results with MinimStreamer WAV transcoding, you would still have the problem of needing to spend money to purchase a UPnP renderer with similar sound quality to the UnitiServe.

Hi Simon

Thanks for clarifying this.

I'd like to try the experiment via my laptop, as it was easily deduced using even these speakers that .FLAC files do not sound the same as .WAV. I only have an acoustic guitar track to judge, ripped for me by Naim in .FLAC and .WAV, as my Unitiserve cannot rip just a track in .FLAC without converting all my files! Do you have any rips of the same track-say an orchestral band track with larger dynamic range, or know of any other source? this would make the experiment easier?

Meantime, can you please set out the remaining steps for me to carry out the experiment on my laptop? First I need to copy the files somewhere for your products to access them, so I don't understand why Minimserver cannot seem to access folders on my NAS? CAn you please set out an example format as they are named with an IP address in, if they ought to be able to find on a network-otherwise perhaps I have t copy to my laptop?

then I need to know please how to get Minimstreamer to work on my laptop if it will output sound too, and then transcode to .WAV? so far it does not seem to work, having read your page on this?

I could perhaps connect my laptop to my hi-fi DAC if I had a suitable cable-not sure if USB connection to the laptop is always superior to the S/PDIF output? My DAC has digital coaxial in-not sure, but it may have some USB functionality-in too.

If possible, can y please give me all the remaining steps in ne go, so I can actually hear some sound from my laptop?

Have you ever found free software that can embed the metadata within the Unitiserve .XML file, but also leave the separate .jpg cover art?

Can Minimserver or dBpoweramp read the XML file and separate .jpg-presumably this issue has arisen with Unitiserve users before?

With my Unitiserve rips, can I use Minimserver for any useful purpose, to tidy up missing or incorrect metadata?

Kind regards

Stephen