[JohninCR]

I am the only person that just copies the CD to the hard drive?  Sure I have to spend some time fixing file names and tags, but I do that while I listen and categorize and rate each song.  Hard drive space is no longer an issue and I'm assured of getting an exact copy of what is on the CD.

[Tirade]

I am the only person that just copies the CD to the hard drive?  Sure I have to spend some time fixing file names and tags, but I do that while I listen and categorize and rate each song.  Hard drive space is no longer an issue and I'm assured of getting an exact copy of what is on the CD.

Obviously WAV files is the ideal solution for someone w/o HD space and if you dont care about embedding tag information.

Even at 500MB per CD in WAV format, once you start getting 1000+ cd's thats a lot of room for storage, especially if youre like me and you run RAID 1 in order to always have a backup should a drive crash.

[Cacophonix]

Okay .... I'm back to square one.

I set the replay gain to disabled, and dont hear any improvement in sound. What makes me even more mad is that my $50 discman seems to sound better.
I mean ... come on!!  There must be something i'm doing wrong. The legions of SB devotees can't be all wrong.

I thought EAC isn't doing a good job of ripping CDs, so i moved to CD-DA Extractor to rip into WAV files. Still no improvement. The WAV and FLAC version sound
exactly the same. So i can take the ripping part out of this whole equation. Either there is some setting on SB3 that i'm missing or thats just the way SB3 sounds.
Putting in >$500 mods in a $300 device is ...   

Don't get me wrong, guys... i love the functionality of SB3... it makes listening to music so much more simpler, but am i wrong in expecting it to sound atleast
better than my disc man?? The music sounds kinda flat ... 2 dimensional. The sparkle is just not there.

After initially trying with Onix SP-3, i hooked it up to Teac ALP700 directly. Now this amp is what i call a tremendous bargain! Its downrite criminal, in my mind, that
Teac and others aren't making more of these. (On a seperate track - Are there any higher powered tripath based integrateds out there?)
Speakers are GR Research AV/3 again ...

Is there anyone in the DFW area who own SB3 and are perfectly happy with it? I'd love to come on over and check out what i'm doing wrong, or they are most welcome
to come over to my place and check out what is it that i'm missing. And can someone who has ripped FLAC files and think it sounds just like their CDs please send me
just one such file? I own all of dire straits CDs ... so any FLAC file of theirs would be great.

[maxwalrath]

Putting in >$500 mods in a $300 device is ...

....the only way to go.

[kfr01]

And can someone who has ripped FLAC files and think it sounds just like their CDs please send me
just one such file? I own all of dire straits CDs ... so any FLAC file of theirs would be great.

Caco:

You're barking up the wrong tree.  If your eac+flac encoding is working, the file is the same (for all practical purposes) as the one on the cd.  I'm not really aware of any way you can screw it up. 

You must simply like the output stage on your diskman (or whatever) better than the one on the SB3.

edit:  another thought.  What's your amp and what are your speakers?  SB users out there, does the SB use digital volume control?  If he's got an amp with a lot of gain and sensitive speakers I wonder if he's turning his SB way down, losing some resolution due to the digital volume control...

[Cacophonix]

What's your amp and what are your speakers?  SB users out there, does the SB use digital volume control?  If he's got an amp with a lot of gain and sensitive speakers I wonder if he's turning his SB way down, losing some resolution due to the digital volume control...

Here are the ways i've tried hooking SB3 up -

• PC-Belkin Wireless Router-SB3-Teac ALP700-GR research AV/3
• PC-Belkin Wireless Router-SB3-Luminous Audio Passive Pre-Teac ALP700-GR Research AV/3
• PC-Belkin Wireless Router-SB3-Onix SP3 Integrated-GR Research AV/3

In the first setup, i've tried setting the gain on the amp all the way up, and control the volume using digital volume control. Also i've tried setting the digital volume
control all the way high, and then adjusting the gain on the amp. They all sounded the same.

[avta]

Cac:
Be sure the volume on the SB is set to maximum. Use the volume control button on the remote.
Guy

[zybar]

I am the only person that just copies the CD to the hard drive?  Sure I have to spend some time fixing file names and tags, but I do that while I listen and categorize and rate each song.  Hard drive space is no longer an issue and I'm assured of getting an exact copy of what is on the CD.

For the 1600+ cd's I have that would take up a ton of disk space!!

Plus, there really is no reason to go that route.  FLAC does a great job of compressing the cd without any change in sound quality.  So why are you not using it?

George

[JohninCR]

I am the only person that just copies the CD to the hard drive?  Sure I have to spend some time fixing file names and tags, but I do that while I listen and categorize and rate each song.  Hard drive space is no longer an issue and I'm assured of getting an exact copy of what is on the CD.

For the 1600+ cd's I have that would take up a ton of disk space!!

Plus, there really is no reason to go that route.  FLAC does a great job of compressing the cd without any change in sound quality.  So why are you not using it?

George

First it was MP3, now it is FLAC, and next it will be something else.   I don't have that big a collection and HD space gets cheaper faster than my collection grows.  I'll need terrabytes at some point for movies anyway, and I'd rather get more hard drive than go through the whole process again.  How much space does FLAC even save?

[mgalusha]

How much space does FLAC even save?

About 40% on average. For many it's not the space savings but the embedded meta tags that make it valuable. Being able to search by title, artist, album, genere is very useful for many folks. While this can be somewhat accomplished using careful directory and file naming conventions, it doesn't compare to having that data embedded in the file. At least for me (a SB user).