CA Azur 640H - Ripping

[KCWolfPck]

I have ordered an Azur 640H. I wanted to get a head start on ripping CDs to a USB hard-drive and had a question. Once I receive the Azur 640H, I plan on ripping uncompressed directly to the units hard drive. In the meantime, should I rip CDs to .wav files? Is that exactly the same as "PCM uncompressed"? If not....what is the computer's equivalent?

Thanks much!

[steelee]

If you rip to Wav you won't get any Tags so will have to name each album/track manually, if you use something like WMA lossless the quality will be the same even though the files will be compressed, and you will save space, also consider FLAC compression, there is no sound difference between uncompressed and lossless.

I use a mix of WMA lossless and WAV files but can’t tell any difference in sound, so from now on am going to stick with WMA as it’s more convenient

[GW43]

Originally Posted by steelee

I use a mix of WMA lossless and WAV files but can’t tell any difference in sound, so from now on am going to stick with WMA as it’s more convenient

I've found WMA Lossless files to be a bit quieter (lower volume) than WAV files. I also get the very vague impression they might be slightly less detailed, but it could be the lower volume causing this. File sizes for WMA Lossless are much smaller - for example a song coming in at 15MB on WMA Lossless was 25MB in WAV format.

[Ed Selley]

Fine except the 640H does not support WMA lossless. Individual files can be named and jpeg's can be dropped into the album folder to run as album art.

[steelee]

Originally Posted by GW43

I've found WMA Lossless files to be a bit quieter (lower volume) than WAV files. I also get the very vague impression they might be slightly less detailed, but it could be the lower volume causing this. File sizes for WMA Lossless are much smaller - for example a song coming in at 15MB on WMA Lossless was 25MB in WAV format.

The Wma files are smaller because they are compressed where as Wav isn't

[steelee]

GW43, what songs are you ripping to get a 15mb file? none of my WMA files are below 40Mb, are you using the latest MP?

[GW43]

Originally Posted by steelee

GW43, what songs are you ripping to get a 15mb file? none of my WMA files are below 40Mb, are you using the latest MP?

I was using Windows Media Player v9, and from memory the album was Divine Madness, track "The Prince". I think this track is only just over 2 minutes long, so at around 10MB/minute then I would expect it to be about 25MB. However, using WMP it was about 15MB.

One thing using WMP v9 I've noticed a "click" between each track, as if some distortion has been introduced. Ironically, I'm using v9 on a new PC, but I've got v10 on an older laptop, which has never introduced this noise.

[brookheather]

Originally Posted by KCWolfPck

I have ordered an Azur 640H.

Oh dear - did you did not read everyone else's experiences on this site before buying one?

- Simon.

[KCWolfPck]

Originally Posted by brookheather

Oh dear - did you did not read everyone else's experiences on this site before buying one?

- Simon.

Yes, I sure did.

So, is anyone able to answer my questions from the original post? It would really be appreciated. Thank you.

[Ed Selley]

WAV is an uncompressed file.

[KCWolfPck]

Originally Posted by Ed Selley

WAV is an uncompressed file.

Yes, I understand that. My question was....is it exactly the same as an "uncompressed PCM" file. I just want to make sure they are all encoded the same.

Thanks.