WAV versus FLAC

""As has been pointed out, WAV does not support metadata"

That would be a stroke in the - column for .wav then."

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. That the metadata is audible somehow?

"I use .wav because I believe it to be the most robust current standard overall. Robust meaning that it was the fewest issues doing what it is designed to do in teh most actual user cases."

No one has demonstrated that FLAC has any "issues".

Expectation bias isn't necessarily caused by a conscious bias, it could be a subconscious bias. It's not a character flaw, and I don't believe in supermen without any biases. So you have to have some way to rule it out. With computer playback it's easy to do blind testing, so maybe you did that.

I'd like to know a lot more about how the files are being played back and through what equipment. It could be a software issue, or possibly RFI (I'm thinking of direct playback from, for example, a laptop densely packed with electronics).

Assuming you're getting a correct and clean s/pdif stream to feed your DAC and still hear a difference, my guess would be that the different formats are producing different amounts of jitter, and your DAC has poor jitter rejection.

Me, I don't hear a difference, but then I don't expect to. ;)

I know that with the Squeezebox, you can choose to have files decoded to PCM on the server end rather than the player end (the default is to send FLAC across the line and decode on the player end). Some people report better sound
with decoding done on the server end. Supposedly, the extra work of decoding in the player causes jitter in the S/PDIF output. But that's just speculation.

It seems to be it should be easy to do blind testing in this case. Just load up some music in WAV and FLAC format and hit shuffle play. Make a note of your impressions, and only check the playlist when you're done.

I think people are just imagining these differences. That's only an insult if you take your subjective impressions of sound way too seriously.

Which cables mask the differences? Do I need silver wire?

For those doing comparisons, the tests aren't very useful to others unless they include some info on your setup: software, transport, DAC, etc. (I haven't gotten around to my own tests, I'm just setting up Squeezebox server now so it will send WAV as PCM only.)

Just finished a "shuffle play" test, 3 FLAC and 3 WAV files. To give the most difference between them, I set the Squeezebox server to send FLAC as FLAC to the player, but send WAV as PCM (default is to also send WAV as FLAC). So the player has to decompress the FLAC stream but not the stream from the WAV file.

The Squeezebox Touch feeds a Neko D-100 DAC. All cabling is Monoprice premium XLR cables. See my system for the rest of the equipment.

My test file is one I use often for auditioning equipment, the first track from Lyrita 247 (Redbook CD), Boult conducts Moeran, a track I'm very familiar with.

I couldn't identify any differences. I just guessed, and my guesses were mostly wrong. A real test would involve a variety of music and more runs, but this is already getting pretty boring.

It's under

Advanced->File Types

in the server settings. I'm using SBS 7.5.3. See

http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/2011/01/soundchecks-squeezebox-touch-toolbox-20.html

for this and other tweaks.