rbienstock
Well-known member
I've had a Kaleidescape system for some time used for movies only. I have been using an AudioRequest music server that has some very good points, but one glaring problem: the digital audio extraction that it performs does not always create a bit-for-bit copy of the original data. One can do a compare of the files on the ARQ with a bit-accurate rip done on a computer and see that error correction has inserted presumably inaudible bits where there were glitches in reading the disk. Even worse, if you rip your disk on a PC instead of the ARQ's internal drive, which I started doing when I observed that there were defects in the rips done on the ARQ's internal drive, the uploads can get corrupted and the songs get truncated. So I've been discussing with my dealer getting the new Naim HDX music server, which is perfect for my needs, has incredibly high-end audio performance, infinitely expandable storage using USB or NAS drives from any manufacturer at no extra charge other than the retail price of the drive. It will also allow me to finally play the 96/24 music discs that I have been trying to get to play on my system for the past 3 years. But my dealer has suggested that given that I already have a Kaleidescape system with several TB of free space on it that I could save a bunch of money by just using my KScape system for music, as the music player costs less than half the price of the HDX.
So I tried it out and I have a number of problems/questions:
1. There does not appear to be any way to import only selected songs from a CD, only the entire CD. Likewise, there does not appear to be any way to delete selected songs from the server once the CD was imported. From those facts, I am inferring that the Kaleidescape doesn't "rip" WAV files from the disk, but instead creates an ISO of the disk on the server in the same manner that it imports DVDs. Is that correct? If not, is there a way to selectively import or remove tracks? Even if one can't delete songs, is there a way to hide them?
2. What sort of error correction/validation is done to insure that the data on the server is a correct replica of the data on the CD?
3. It appears that the only method of getting music off the server is using Conductor, which will only run on a PC. Thus it would appear that Mac users are screwed. Is that correct?
4. It also appears that there is no way to extract music from the server in any format other than some compressed formats. What format are these extracts in, MP3, AAC or something else? Can one extract music in either FLAC, AIFF or WAV (or any other lossless format for that matter)?
5. Can one import music from any other medium other than CD? For example, if one has a CD-R or DVD-R with WAV files on it, can these be imported? What about MP3 files?
So I tried it out and I have a number of problems/questions:
1. There does not appear to be any way to import only selected songs from a CD, only the entire CD. Likewise, there does not appear to be any way to delete selected songs from the server once the CD was imported. From those facts, I am inferring that the Kaleidescape doesn't "rip" WAV files from the disk, but instead creates an ISO of the disk on the server in the same manner that it imports DVDs. Is that correct? If not, is there a way to selectively import or remove tracks? Even if one can't delete songs, is there a way to hide them?
2. What sort of error correction/validation is done to insure that the data on the server is a correct replica of the data on the CD?
3. It appears that the only method of getting music off the server is using Conductor, which will only run on a PC. Thus it would appear that Mac users are screwed. Is that correct?
4. It also appears that there is no way to extract music from the server in any format other than some compressed formats. What format are these extracts in, MP3, AAC or something else? Can one extract music in either FLAC, AIFF or WAV (or any other lossless format for that matter)?
5. Can one import music from any other medium other than CD? For example, if one has a CD-R or DVD-R with WAV files on it, can these be imported? What about MP3 files?