Advantages of MinimStreamer

[gnomus]

(16-04-2014 11:14)DavidHB Wrote:  ...
Why does transcoding change the sound quality ...

... I use FLAC to WAV24 transcoding on my system, and think that it makes a noticeable if not dramatic difference. It's a no cost option, so that is fine by me.

Thanks again for your time and patience in explaining this to me. I will certainly give transcoding a more prolonged try (although I can only play 16 bit files through my current Sonos setup and it may, in any case, be insufficient to reveal subtle differences in sound quality).

I note what you say about "jitter", which I think I partially understand. Even with my relatively inexpensive system, there are times when I think I am hearing things that I never heard before on my moderately expensive CD player. At other times, however, the new setup seems too harsh (or "bright" if you prefer) to my tastes. I am beginning to wonder if at least some of the harshness is related to jitter and is occurring at times when the signal passing between my NAS and my Renderer is reduced in strength/quality for whatever reason (see my other thread here [post #9] for description of this).