Geting MM to play Wav Pack files?

[windcrest77]

What hardware you use to read full SACD on PC ??????? I was not aware that one existed.

THis SACD is playing over 3050 kbps! Depth, dynamic range, etc. are really unbelievable for a PC music system, I never dreamed my PC could be as good as the main stereo system.

[Peke]

What CD/DVD/SACD Rom drive you are using?

[windcrest77]

What CD/DVD/SACD Rom drive you are using?

Peke, My system is not expensive at all because I am very much a cheap-skate:

Sony SCD-XA5400ES > Balanced analog out using generic Belden cable (very cheap but has virgin copper) > Behringer Ultramatch Pro SRC2496 (for A/D conversion) > S/PDIF (over RCA cable) to PC M-Audio sound card > Audacity free DAW software

To digitize my LP's I used the same setup except:

Music Hall MMF Turntable > Grado (red) cartridge > Audioquest cable > Musical Fidelity V-LPS pre amp > Audioquest cable > Behringer ... same etc.

I could also do the A/D conversion with my sound card but the cheapo Behringer has more options for format conversion.

My PC desktop sound for playback is via an external USB/DAC: PC USB Bus > NuForce Icon2 integrated amp with 24/96 DAC > Paradigm Atom desktop speakers with NHT Super8 mini subwoofer in corner. Using a small external DAC from the USB bus provides much better playback quality than any in-PC sound card, the Icon2 will synch to anything up to 24/96.

Headphones are AKG K701 used with the Icon2 headphone amp above

[Peke]

As I thought so, You are not using PC to RIP CDs but you use standalone device which is another issue.

[windcrest77]

As I thought so, You are not using PC to RIP CDs but you use standalone device which is another issue.

Sony made the final analog stage of the SCD-XA5400ES to be of highest quality as it uses balanced professional output. It really does not degrade the sound in any way, (the 1 bit DSD stream is unavailable unless you have your SACD player modified and you would then still need some kind of digital format converter to convert DSD to 24/96 redbook standard for the flac process). It is easier to buy a machine with the best possible analog output and sample that at a density much higher than 16/44.1 (cd standard). I used 24/88.2 or 24/96 as that is as high as my Behinger a/d converter goes. After level 6 flac compression a typical album occupies anywhere from 900MB to 2GB. But sound is awesome! I'm not sure sampling at 24/192 would be that much better but such files would be unreasonably huge even after flac compression.