FLAC On A Mac

You can also play FLAC files natively on a MAC using Songbird.

Puerto,
If you want to play FLAC files using a USB or Firewire converter or DAC, or directly from the MAC, I would highly recommend using XLD to convert these files first to .wav. You will find that the sound quality of the .wav is superior, not because the FLAC decoding is flawed, but because these decoders simply cannot keep-up in real time with the datastream. Same for AIFF.

I know saying this that I will get a lot if flac from the posters here, yet I know it to be true. I recently was in my room ar RMAF playing a 44.1 track of Steven Stills "treetop flyer". Great track, but it was given to us in FLAC format. one of my roommates said it would souind better as .wav,a and I said no way. Anyway , I converted it from .wav to FLAC and played both tracks.

The FLAC track was like listening through a tunnel. The .wave file was open, airy and natural. I am a believer now. One show attendee in the room said "shit, my entire library is FLAC, I dont want to hear this"

To hear these differences, you will need a truly resolving system. Ours was.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Depends on your operating system. I did the same coparison with my Linux music server and no audible difference were heard between FLAC Vs WAV.

If you have enough CPU power and a good decoder, there is no reason to hear any difference. The only issue that may come to mind is a very poor implementation of the audio streaming that have the decoder and the streaming interface fighting for CPU cycles, resources or interrupts.

Saying that WAV is better than FLAC is a wrong blanket statement.

Have fun testing!

Ranperry - depends on your system. Everyone thinks they have a truly resolving system. If you are using an active preamp, you probably will not hear the difference. I have heard it and I have enough customers that have reported this that I believe it. YMMV.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Achilles: you had asked about the Marantz NA 7004 player a few months ago on this thread and I just saw it now. I had discussed it on some other threads in the "Digital" forum.
It turned that my original model was defective. After obtaining an exchange, I'd give it a big thumbs up for sound. It uses the same cirrhus logic chip that the 803 and 804 SACD/CD players use . If you have familiarity with those players you will know what to expect.
It is a very versatile piece. I had originally purchased it with High Rez
Downloads in mind but have wound up playing standard Rez material from my MacBook and Internet radio at least as much.
It's has a couple of major weaknesses: the first is the interface, which is terrible and mandates that you use another device such as an iPad to control it. The iPad app is less than perfect, to say the least. The second problem is that the device itself is buggy. For example, the iPod/USB input will frequently give "no compatibility" indication, even when the same track has been played on the player before, and requires multiple overrides to work.