Sonos, FLACs and being arsed...

Sonos, FLACs and being arsed...

Author
Discussion

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
Do yourself a favour - spend a little and get dbpoweramp for ripping then rip to flac.

If sonos does not highlight the differences between lossless and lossy, devilalet certainly will.

Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
It won’t be any different to ALAC that he says he will rip to.

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
No, it won't but last time I looked flac was better supported than ALAC which might be important in the future.

As it happens, Dbpoweramp uses an alac codec too so still recommended.

Ripping a whole library to alac only to find issues with compatibility later would be a pain similar to that experienced by the poor souls who ripped to MP3 the first time round to save file size.

Sound quality flac vs alac should be indentical, no argument there.

Edited by legzr1 on Saturday 23 September 09:27

Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
It wouldn’t be similar pain as you’d just convert from ALAC to FLAC.

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
Yeah, ok.

Personally, setting up a batch conversion of 10,000 + files amounting to 3Tb constitutes a pain in the arse when you can rip to flac in the first place.

And that's without getting into tagging issues during the conversion.

Do it once, do it right.

Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
It’s no use to people that want to use iTunes whilst Apple don’t support FLAC.

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
Big sigh...

From the post above it reads as if a member needs to rip a sizeable amount of CDs to a NAS to be played back using sonos or perhaps a better sounding system in the near future.

There is no need to use iTunes, no need to stick to alac and, as I've already said, actually ripping to alac could be a mistake going forward. Conversion at a later date would take time and introduces the possibility of tagging going to pot.

In my real life, honest and genuine opinion - rip and tag to flac using dbpoweramp.

Forget alac.
Forget iTunes - I suspect it was only mentioned as this used to be a 'go to' solution for those with limited storage using low bitrate files.
These days, no need for either. Upcoming support for flac in iOS and Apple TV shows even apple get this.

Just friendly advice. He and yourself are perfectly free to ignore it.


Edited by legzr1 on Saturday 23 September 11:54

Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
It seems like you want to try to convince me, which is funny.

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
Just answering your questions, not too bothered with how you do things.

The OP can rip to alac using iTunes if he likes.

It could be a mistake.

If you find anything inaccurate in my earlier posts I'm sure you'll attempt to point them out.

smile

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
R6VED said:
I combine Spotify with 7 Sonos speakers around the house; as a family we listen to so much more music than we ever did, as it is just so easy and immediate.

I gave up on ITunes and CD's immediately after getting the new set up.

Can't fault it.
Same for me apart from the fact that I use a Sonos Amp with some quality Tannoy speakers
to stream from Spotify.



Magic919

14,126 posts

200 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
I didn’t ask any questions.

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
Magic919 said:
I didn’t ask any questions.
Nor actually add much but don't let that stop your helpful one-liners.

Gary C

12,315 posts

178 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
quotequote all
legzr1 said:
Magic919 said:
I didn’t ask any questions.
Nor actually add much but don't let that stop your helpful one-liners.
Lol

Magic just offered an alternative view which you seemed to have taken offence to.

Anyway OP

I redid all my cd's last year. Just plod away.

However, I hardly every listen to the cd's on the nas as streaming is so much easier.

And my wife actually uses the Sonos now Ive hooked up a dot to the play5.

Looking forward to full integration

Edited by Gary C on Saturday 23 September 16:22

djneils98

301 posts

149 months

Tuesday 26th September 2017
quotequote all
mp3manager said:
This.

And they have the brassneck to charge you again for an mp3 copy....when dbpoweramp will rip to lossless and lossy at the same time.

aquarianone

498 posts

176 months

Thursday 28th September 2017
quotequote all
If your home BB is slow, can you get decent 4g in your area?






kingston12

5,473 posts

156 months

Thursday 28th September 2017
quotequote all
I'd use Spotify on their 'extreme' setting which is 320kb/s files. This is still very compressed, but more than good enough of playing through Sonos.

You can download the tracks to listen to in offline mode, so you should just be able to leave that running overnight and you'll never actually have to stream the tracks.

Tidal would be better as it is lossless, but not sure how much you can cache offline with that.

Ripping CDs is a pain, but still worth it if you can get through the boredom factor. I did mine over the course of a few months, just trying to remember to a CD into the drive each time I walked passed the computer.

It is still nice to have them because I can tell the difference between Spotify and the ALAC files when played through my half-decent DAC and hifi system. For pushing around the house to smaller speakers, I just use Spotify because the interface is easier and the sound the same.

C&C

3,281 posts

220 months

Thursday 28th September 2017
quotequote all
garyhun said:
R6VED said:
I combine Spotify with 7 Sonos speakers around the house; as a family we listen to so much more music than we ever did, as it is just so easy and immediate.

I gave up on ITunes and CD's immediately after getting the new set up.

Can't fault it.
Same for me apart from the fact that I use a Sonos Amp with some quality Tannoy speakers
to stream from Spotify.
And further upgrades in sound quality from Sonos are available by streaming FLAC and use a Sonos Connect with external good quality DAC, then external amp and speakers, which will show a difference between the FLAC and Spotify, albeit not as convenient as Spotify.

For reference we use the above playing FLAC, but also in other rooms such as the kitchen, use Spotify a lot for the convenience. Best of both worlds, which is why I'm still a fan of Sonos.