# Best Scenario for downloaded media???



## HTGeek7 (Mar 20, 2012)

Hey everyone,
So I have a few questions in regards to mp3 and cd media. I have an huge collection of original cd's and recordable cd's and want to get the best quality out of them and wanted to put together a nice collection of this media. I recently visited Axpona when it was in Chicago and saw a few programs that Vendors were using as far as playback of downloaded media (Fidelia I believe was one of them) which is the best program to use as far as playback?? 
second is it good to rip cd's into FLAC and is there a better program than others out there (any recommendations will be greatly appreciated) and what about the "burned cd's with media" would it be a benefit to convert these files. These were ripped using windows media player and "tracks" so they are not cd's full of mp3 files.
lastly, i was reading a little about a DAC (specifically Emotiva's - Kinda on a budget) and was wondering if this connects from the media (computer, laptop) directly to the AV receiver??

Sorry for the lack of information that i have of this, for those who have an extreme knowledge of this area, any recommendations would help alot. :dontknow:


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

For play back I suggest Foobar.... its free and is awesome and is audiophile friendly. you could spend more and go for a program like j River but I have tired both and see no benefit to j river vs foobar.

if you want to rip your personal cds ( if that is is legal) into FLAC format which is probably the best way to go you can also use foobar you just need a plug in from flac.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15577/how-to-rip-an-audio-cd-to-flac-with-foobar2000/


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

also about your dac... Are you going to play most of you music from your desktop there are a couple options.

I was using a JDS labs DAC which is a USB dac that I connected to some powered MAudio Bx5A's and it sounds very nice. ( all very affordable)

if you have a PC I switched to a creative labs audiophile card that has a swappable Op-Amp. It is pretty awesome and they actually just released a new card so I am wishing I had waited another month.


emotiva is awesome I have a UMC 200 but that is a whole other topic.

http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=46 
with rca outputs....


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## HTGeek7 (Mar 20, 2012)

Do you have the emotiva Amps as well? Do you have your sources running though the umc 200 w hdmi? Can you post pics of your setup? Thanks for the help with the responses


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

a pic may be hard but yes I do have a UMC 200 and emotiva amps.... i have my HTPC connected to the UMC 200 and I have my source files on a server. I use foobar and a program on my tablet called bubbleUp to remotely control play etc... 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp


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## DotJun (May 31, 2013)

HTGeek7 said:


> Hey everyone,
> So I have a few questions in regards to mp3 and cd media. I have an huge collection of original cd's and recordable cd's and want to get the best quality out of them and wanted to put together a nice collection of this media. I recently visited Axpona when it was in Chicago and saw a few programs that Vendors were using as far as playback of downloaded media (Fidelia I believe was one of them) which is the best program to use as far as playback??
> second is it good to rip cd's into FLAC and is there a better program than others out there (any recommendations will be greatly appreciated) and what about the "burned cd's with media" would it be a benefit to convert these files. These were ripped using windows media player and "tracks" so they are not cd's full of mp3 files.
> lastly, i was reading a little about a DAC (specifically Emotiva's - Kinda on a budget) and was wondering if this connects from the media (computer, laptop) directly to the AV receiver??
> ...


Foobar for the player. EAC for the ripper. FLAC is good, WAV if you are an anti-compression nut


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## redsandvb (Dec 2, 2009)

In addition to EAC and foobar, there's CUETools (also free), dBpoweramp (not free), among others. They also use AccurateRip, which is a good idea to setup.

This guide can help you setup EAC, it can be a bit complicated for non-techies/first timers.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

First things first..JRIVER MEDIA PLAYER is a very inexpensive ($49) and IMO is far superior as a MEDIA PLAYER for several reasons
1. ability to upsample any media to 7.1/96khz/24 bit with ASIO support
2. room correction with individual channel levels
3. superior cataloging 
4 ability to run VST plugins
5. superior video tweaks as well
6. customizing options 
It pretty much soes it all and very well 

I use IZOTOPE OZONE5 for VST audio shaping with amazing results...

Using ADOBE AUDITION 3 for any permanent re sampling and remixing to 5.1 

I also prefer 5.1 analog over HDMI and AVR decoding....onder:


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

my only issue with j rivier and maybe they have a better solution now was the remote app capability. there was only iphone support I believe.... I have a windows phone and Nexus android tablet. There was a windows phone app but it was not good at all. other than that j river is a high quality player.


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