Dbpoweramp for Mac and aiff vs wav

[ErikM]

So here goes.. I've been using XLD to rip for ages, so today I tried Dbpoweramp for OS X since it's available now and not a beta. Not to make a long story longer but I needed to see if I could rip to wav and get artwork and metadata to work in an Aurender and on a Sonos (this is for a friend) Anyway my friend believes that wav sounds best. Better than aiff or flac or alac.. Well I've never been a wav fan because of it's crappy metadata support, but low and behold ripping with Dbpoweramp I can get all the metadata to display. And here's the part that's got me going.. wav sounds better than aiff.. Not a lot but it just seems to sound a bit cleaner and clearer.

Aiff rips of the same cd sound just a touch softer, just a tiny bit veiled.. Am I nuts? In theory they should sound identical.. but damn.

[wdw]

So here goes.. I've been using XLD to rip for ages, so today I tried Dbpoweramp for OS X since it's available now and not a beta. Not to make a long story longer but I needed to see if I could rip to wav and get artwork and metadata to work in an Aurender and on a Sonos (this is for a friend) Anyway my friend believes that wav sounds best. Better than aiff or flac or alac.. Well I've never been a wav fan because of it's crappy metadata support, but low and behold ripping with Dbpoweramp I can get all the metadata to display. And here's the part that's got me going.. wav sounds better than aiff.. Not a lot but it just seems to sound a bit cleaner and clearer.

Aiff rips of the same cd sound just a touch softer, just a tiny bit veiled.. Am I nuts? In theory they should sound identical.. but damn.

Well, your comments totally miff me...some time ago I did a novice's comparision between AIFF and WAV with the result that I started to write all my CD's to WAV but then in those earlier days of Audirvana and using remote software WAV was totally useless without metadata, etc...so started to re-write all to AIFF.

 

So dBPoweramp can write the metadata into the "file"?

 

Agree that WAV does sound better.

Best

Wdw

[ErikM]

Yes. Dbpoweramp will embed metadata and create a nice file with cover art. Give it a try you can download a free trial version. I just wish I could understand why wav sounds better?

[wdw]

Yes. Dbpoweramp will embed metadata and create a nice file with cover art. Give it a try you can download a free trial version. I just wish I could understand why wav sounds better?

This was a bigger debate many years ago....maybe Roch can jump in....something about litle endian file structures. Dunno.

[ErikM]

I read most of the old threads.. The more I listen the more I do hear that wav is better.. If I was to give it a percentage I'd say it's small like 5% what I'm hearing is that aiff sounds just a tad softer and veiled..it's not huge and it's not really distracting. Wav just sounds a bit clearer and more transparent..

[kennyb123]

This was a bigger debate many years ago....maybe Roch can jump in....something about litle endian file structures. Dunno.

 

Memory foggy on this - but I think the type of CPU in the computer factored into this.

 

WDW: I wonder if you will still have a preference for WAV now that you've moved to the Aries.

[4est]

I was mixed in the fray of aiff vs wav. It was plain as day when I used a 2009 mac mini and any player program on RB. I am not sure these days using HQPlayer RB>DSD on W8.

Memory foggy on this - but I think the type of CPU in the computer factored into this.

 

WDW: I wonder if you will still have a preference for WAV now that you've moved to the Aries.