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Jota · (This post was last modified: 06-02-2014 13:52 by Jota.)

Been using streamer for the last week or so.

Synology DS213+ Naim Unitiqute2 with N-Stream app flac:wav24 and it's worked flawlessly.

Been going back and forward from transcoding to not transcoding and I prefer transcoded to wav24. The music appears to have an enticing sense of fluidity that's not there when not transcoding. I can't describe it any other way.

What's the transcoding process called? Looking in resource monitor on NAS while playing music shows Java at 1.9% CPU and 50MB RAM. Synoaudiod at 0.4% CPU and 5MB RAM.
Java is the highest resource user.

simoncn · 06-02-2014, 16:14

(06-02-2014 13:52)Jota Wrote: Been using streamer for the last week or so.

Synology DS213+ Naim Unitiqute2 with N-Stream app flac:wav24 and it's worked flawlessly.

Been going back and forward from transcoding to not transcoding and I prefer transcoded to wav24. The music appears to have an enticing sense of fluidity that's not there when not transcoding. I can't describe it any other way.

What's the transcoding process called? Looking in resource monitor on NAS while playing music shows Java at 1.9% CPU and 50MB RAM. Synoaudiod at 0.4% CPU and 5MB RAM.
Java is the highest resource user.

Thanks for this feedback on the difference you're hearing with transcoding. My own experience is similar.

FLAC to WAV transcoding is performed by the same Java process that runs MinimServer and MinimStreamer.

Jota · (This post was last modified: 09-02-2014 19:19 by Jota.)

Then the transcoding takes up very little system resources, impressive!

Here's a little piece from one of Naim's white papers on the subject of upstream transcoding which may go some way to explaining the benefit to sound quality in utilising transcoding in Minimstreamer.

In the White Paper on the NDX from 2010, Naim writes:
"Naim’s UPnP™ servers deliver the uncompressed audio data ripped from CD using the Naim ripping engine to ensure the best quality reproduction. Uncompressed audio data will always give better results than compressed. Even lossless compression may not reproduce audio with equivalent quality to the uncompressed original as the processing required to uncompress the data increases the computational load. This raises the power supply noise floor, which detracts from the sound quality."

I suppose this applies to all their streamers and perhaps to other manufacturers too.

simoncn · (This post was last modified: 09-02-2014 20:42 by simoncn.)

(09-02-2014 19:16)Jota Wrote: Then the transcoding takes up very little system resources, impressive!

Here's a little piece from one of Naim's white papers on the subject of upstream transcoding which may go some way to explaining the benefit to sound quality in utilising transcoding in Minimstreamer.

In the White Paper on the NDX from 2010, Naim writes:
"Naim’s UPnP™ servers deliver the uncompressed audio data ripped from CD using the Naim ripping engine to ensure the best quality reproduction. Uncompressed audio data will always give better results than compressed. Even lossless compression may not reproduce audio with equivalent quality to the uncompressed original as the processing required to uncompress the data increases the computational load. This raises the power supply noise floor, which detracts from the sound quality."

I suppose this applies to all their streamers and perhaps to other manufacturers too.

This is the first time I have heard a scientific explanation of the audible difference that many people have reported with various renderers. Thanks for providing this reference.

lateloss · 15-02-2014, 17:17

Hi. I'm having problems with transcoding from my synology DS214+. despite the correct settings (I think)- stream:converter ffmpeg enabled (I'm presuming synology preinstalled) and stream:transcode ALAC:WAV24/wav etc selected in the transcode my files continue to play as ALAC. What am I doing wrong? thanks

simoncn · 15-02-2014, 17:53

(15-02-2014 17:17)lateloss Wrote: Hi. I'm having problems with transcoding from my synology DS214+. despite the correct settings (I think)- stream:converter ffmpeg enabled (I'm presuming synology preinstalled) and stream:transcode ALAC:WAV24/wav etc selected in the transcode my files continue to play as ALAC. What am I doing wrong? thanks

You need to refresh the control point container for your ALAC files (e.g., an album) after changing the stream.transcode setting. The simplest way to make sure you have done this is to restart MinimServer.

lateloss · 15-02-2014, 19:45

Thanks. yes, I now have transcoding working for most files, but the problem appears to be with 24bit files. These still register as ALAC rather than WAV files.Any ideas?

simoncn · (This post was last modified: 15-02-2014 22:22 by simoncn.)

(15-02-2014 19:45)lateloss Wrote: Thanks. yes, I now have transcoding working for most files, but the problem appears to be with 24bit files. These still register as ALAC rather than WAV files.Any ideas?

WAV transcoding of 24-bit ALAC files is working for me. I've tried this with both alac:wav and alac:wav24.

Does your control point allow you to see the URI for the file? If so, does it end with 'transcode.wav'?

lateloss · 16-02-2014, 09:41

I've been using naim n-stream software as the controller which does not give me access to the URI, but does allow me to see when the transcoded format is wav. Although it transcodes most as wav (actually set to wav24) there are random occasions where it doesn't and the files stream as ALAC. I originally thought this was confined to the 24bit files, but it does not seem to be the case....it's not the end of the world but it does seem odd!?

simoncn · 16-02-2014, 10:49

(16-02-2014 09:41)lateloss Wrote: I've been using naim n-stream software as the controller which does not give me access to the URI, but does allow me to see when the transcoded format is wav. Although it transcodes most as wav (actually set to wav24) there are random occasions where it doesn't and the files stream as ALAC. I originally thought this was confined to the 24bit files, but it does not seem to be the case....it's not the end of the world but it does seem odd!?

By "random", do you mean the same file will sometimes stream as WAV and sometimes stream as ALAC? Or does each file always stream consistently the same way? If it is the latter, please upload to my FTP server one of the ALAC files that is consistently streaming as ALAC instead of WAV. I will PM you the FTP server details now.