2. digital
  3. 189850-145382

Sound Quality

First off, I am pleading ignorance here, so my apologies up front, but I need some help on figuring out what this digital stuff is all about. It was simple, just to pull out a CD and play it, but with streaming and such, it seems to be a whole different ball of wax.

After finally finishing the remodel on my home, I've have had a bit of time to sit down and listen to my system. My Aurender N200 came with an SD card loaded with music. Most of it is ripped from hybrid SACDs or at 16bit- 44.1kHz "Original Mastering Recording" CDs, (some are DSF files some WAV files, but all sound the same to me). The music sounds flat and dull but when I play the equivalent song on Tidal in 16bit-44.1 kHz it sounds much better.

I have a second SD card  with some HD Tracks CDs at 24 bit-96 kHz that I which sound really good through the N200. Maybe understandable being hi-res, but some say they can't hear a big difference between the two, but I sure can in this instance.

I understand that up sampling, DSD and HQ Player can even bring better sound to the table, but I'm having enough trouble with just the basics here, that stuff is way over my head. 

I'd like to rip a couple of my own CDs to a new SD card and try it to compare with the SD card that came with the N200. What is the best method to do this?

As always, your thought & comments are much appreciated!

128x128navyachts
navyachts's avatar
navyachts OP
484 posts
 

@lalitk I ripped a CD using dBpoweramp in both WAV and FLAC and listening with on the same computer that I ripped, with a pair of earphones, I couldn't hear a difference.

Files were the same size in in a lossless uncompressed state.

Do you prefer WAV?

ricred1
1,990 posts
 

I have the Antipodes K10 ripper that rips straight to my Antipodes Oladra’s SSD. The Antipodes K10 triggers the ripping software in my Oladra. I place a CD in the tray and close it, and ripping starts automatically. When the CD has been ripped, the tray automatically opens. 

navyachts's avatar
navyachts OP
484 posts
 

@ricred1 Cool, but I'm giving this a bit of second thought. Honestly (as some have suggested) with all the streaming content that's out there, there really isn't the need to rip CDs, I guess. That is unless you have something rare that can't be found online. Any other benefits you can muster?

 

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,109 posts
 

@navyachts 

I prefer WAV…I just don’t like the notion of unnecessary decompression (unfolding) process with FLAC files. Storage (SSD) cost is no longer an issue so why bother ripping CD’s in a lossy FLAC format. 

ricred1
1,990 posts
 

navyachts,

"@ricred1 Cool, but I’m giving this a bit of second thought. Honestly (as some have suggested) with all the streaming content that’s out there, there really isn’t the need to rip CDs, I guess. That is unless you have something rare that can’t be found online. Any other benefits you can muster?"

 

I use streaming to discover new music and then purchase the cd. In my system ripped CDs sound better than streaming, but to each their own.

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