Day 7 & 8.
More than a little frustration with wav files. Transfer of wav files is probably an exception rather than rule proposition. Sadly, transfer of the bulk of one’s library in wav is probably not a viable plan.
Having determined that at least in one case, a wav file sounded perceptibly superior to its ALAC equivalent, I was faced with a conundrum of sorts. If wav files are consistently superior, and one can purchase for download only flac and ALAC files, would one not be better off buying a cd, and transferring a wav copy? Is the file size of wav going to make it impractical to copy the bulk of one’s library in wav? As alluded to in Uomoragno’s post above, these questions were rendered moot by the difficulty I experienced in transferring about 6-8 CDs in wav to the Sony. While the wav copies were successfully created in iTunes, less than half of these albums transferred to the Sony correctly. In most cases, the metadata did not transfer, which one could probably live with. However, about half of the “albums” were seriously corrupted. As an example, the 3rd movement of the 3rd quartet from the Takacs Bartok cycle was extracted out of the “album”, and the sony created a separate “album” of this movement. Many cds transferred in similar but with even more extreme corruption. Sadly, I am forced to conclude we should not expect that transferring wav files will be practical. In actual fact, file size might well make this impossible anyway, but it would be nice to have that option for a few very special works. Alac appears to be robust with respect to music and metadata transfer.
I should mention that one cd would not properly copy into iTunes as either Alac or wav. So this is an example where the music is going to require playback through a cd player. The CD is a hybrid SACD/red book. Don’t know just yet if this is going to continue to be an issue, but it bears watching.
I bought a tablet last night and successfully transferred the HDD Audio remote app to the tablet. I will spend some time over the next few days evaluating what this app brings to the party.
It is fortunate that my purchase of the HAPZ1 coincided with my retirement. This is not a plug and play proposition. It does require time and learning. On the other hand, we have all spent a good bit more time on issues like getting speaker placement dialed in, so its not like this investment is out of proportion to the return.
More than a little frustration with wav files. Transfer of wav files is probably an exception rather than rule proposition. Sadly, transfer of the bulk of one’s library in wav is probably not a viable plan.
Having determined that at least in one case, a wav file sounded perceptibly superior to its ALAC equivalent, I was faced with a conundrum of sorts. If wav files are consistently superior, and one can purchase for download only flac and ALAC files, would one not be better off buying a cd, and transferring a wav copy? Is the file size of wav going to make it impractical to copy the bulk of one’s library in wav? As alluded to in Uomoragno’s post above, these questions were rendered moot by the difficulty I experienced in transferring about 6-8 CDs in wav to the Sony. While the wav copies were successfully created in iTunes, less than half of these albums transferred to the Sony correctly. In most cases, the metadata did not transfer, which one could probably live with. However, about half of the “albums” were seriously corrupted. As an example, the 3rd movement of the 3rd quartet from the Takacs Bartok cycle was extracted out of the “album”, and the sony created a separate “album” of this movement. Many cds transferred in similar but with even more extreme corruption. Sadly, I am forced to conclude we should not expect that transferring wav files will be practical. In actual fact, file size might well make this impossible anyway, but it would be nice to have that option for a few very special works. Alac appears to be robust with respect to music and metadata transfer.
I should mention that one cd would not properly copy into iTunes as either Alac or wav. So this is an example where the music is going to require playback through a cd player. The CD is a hybrid SACD/red book. Don’t know just yet if this is going to continue to be an issue, but it bears watching.
I bought a tablet last night and successfully transferred the HDD Audio remote app to the tablet. I will spend some time over the next few days evaluating what this app brings to the party.
It is fortunate that my purchase of the HAPZ1 coincided with my retirement. This is not a plug and play proposition. It does require time and learning. On the other hand, we have all spent a good bit more time on issues like getting speaker placement dialed in, so its not like this investment is out of proportion to the return.