I have a Bartók streaming DAC, and use it to play music from a Synology NAS using Roon. As I understand it, the Bartók upsamples music to DSD. Is it worthwhile, therefore, to upsample CDs to DSD when ripping them? If not, what is the preferred format for ripping to NAS?
Exactly. It upsamples whatever to rate your have chosen as it plays. You do not rip to that higher rate, the conversion happens on the fly as you listen.
Is it better? That is why you can select it or not and make up your own mind. Just remember that just because the numbers are bigger this does not indicate the creation of any actual additional musical information.
Converting existing software to a different format can also create issues for storage if using ripping software which can automatically recognise a track and insert correct metadata and album artwork. If the newly altered track cannot be recognised by the software then that feature may not function as intended and may involve you in a lot of additional manual work.
So, my advice is rip 1:1 ( using e.g. dbpoweramp) and upsample the replay if you prefer the result.
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Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. I’ve ripped previous CDs to DSD using JRiver; now I’ve just downloaded dBPoweramp and see that it offers many, many ripping formats, with FLAC as the default. Is that the optimal format to work with dCS?
Many prefer using .wav as the format. My personal preference is however FLAC as .wav does not embed the metadata with the music file ( it is associated instead). .WAV is a lossless, uncompressed format (good thing). However although FLAC is a compressed file format it is also lossless ( like zipped text) and has the benefit of embedding the metadata in the music file. As you gain confidence with dbpower amp you will find out that the degree of compression is selectable ( level 5 is the default setting). However you can choose level 0 so that there is no compression.
Some listeners say the FLAC compression may be audible even though it is lossless but obviously if level 0 is picked compression cannot be an issue anyway.
As mentioned I rip as FLAC level 0 and am unable to hear any difference compared to .wav ( using Vivaldi) but this method retains the metadata advantages.
BTW, If you buy dbpoweramp make sure that you also buy PerfectTunes ( bundled with it) as this will save you hours of work.
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