Conversion of high resolution file .DFF

[Vinay2013]

Hi,

One of my friend shared with me few music albums with .dff extension and mentioned the outstanding quality. But my player Pioneer BD160 was not able to recognize this format. I played this in computer with Foober (and SACD/ DSDDFF add on) and it played smoothly. But since my computer is not connected to AV hence no 5.1 audio, so I converted it to WAV via foober and tried with my home theatre. Original file of a song was around 687 mb which reduced to around 400 mb. I was not sure that it will preserve 5.1 channel but when I connected, it played 5.1 audio with awesome clarity and separation. In my BD player player it was showing bit rate of around 8887 kbps which I had never seen in any audio file.

So my question is when I converted it to WAV, is there any possibility that it lost some quality because file size was reduced. Is there any other way to convert it or play it without losing any quality. Foober is playing .dff format after add on.

Sorry if this has been discussed or sound dumb but I am trying to learn new things. Hence will appreciate if I can get some insights.

Thanks a lot
Vinay

 

[Vinay2013]

No replies.

Not sure if I am asking a wrong question or something is fundamentally wrong. I was expecting some lights from learned FMs.

Can anyone at least point me to a suitable thread or link?

 

[Nikhil]

Vinay2013,

File extensions with .dff are SACD / DSD files (Direct Stream Digital) which are high resolution formats.
The file sizes you mentioned is typical of this format - they have huge file sizes.
You can google DSD to read more about the format.

Converting from DSD to PCM does have some negative effects if not done well.

Foobar should do a good job to play/convert these files to your AVR.
I use JRiver which does the conversion for me and the result is quite good.

Here is a link from another forum for conversion using Foobar:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?100627-Converting-DSD-to-PCM
(See the second post where the options for conversion are specified)

 

[Vinay2013]

Dear Nikhil

Thanks a lot for the information and link. This is some real useful information. I will definitely try that. I am not very used to Foober and downloaded it first time yesterday hence could not get a chance to explore all the options.

As of now I was able to convert them into .WAV format which is playing great. Just curious to know if converting in Flac will have some additional advantages. Both are lossless format right? I do not have space or file size issue. Also will there be any loss during conversion?

No doubt they sound amazingly clear and great in 5.1 even in my humble Yamaha YHT196

 

[Nikhil]

As of now I was able to convert them into .WAV format which is playing great. Just curious to know if converting in Flac will have some additional advantages. Both are lossless format right? I do not have space or file size issue. Also will there be any loss during conversion?

Take care to use the external addons (Encoder Pack and Sox Resampler) for the conversion of dff to wav or flac.
Others more conversant with Foobar might give you more advice.

Wav is a very good lossless format. If you are on a PC then wav files are among the best sounding file formats to use.
Some prefer to store their music in wav format.

Flac is another lossless format which offers high quality playback.
The format offers features like tagging of metadata (song info, artist, album, etc) which is useful for cataloging your collection as it grows.

The comparison between the two is not really about quality of playback but rather ease of storage and metadata support. Earlier wav did not support metadata but now most of the media software have work arounds. I use JRiver and it makes no difference to me which format I use. Both sound great although most of my files are now flac.

 

[Vinay2013]

Thanks Nikhil. I am using PC just to rip the CDs. I have very basic multimedia speakers attached to that. I generally store my music in a hard disk and IPhone/ Sony Walkman and play it either through home theatre (Living room) or amp/Bookshelf in bedroom.

On a separate note, I very much liked your micro bookshelf design and firmly believe they will sound awesome once you complete them.

Regards,
Vinay

 

[Nikhil]

On a separate note, I very much liked your micro bookshelf design and firmly believe they will sound awesome once you complete them.

I think you have mixed me with someone else. No bookshelf on the cards for me at the moment.

About your music - do consider using a good media software. It will make listening to audio much better even on a simple PC setup. I use JRiver on all my computers (home and office) on a single licence - which is allowed by JRiver - and it makes listening to almost anything out there very easy. Highly recommended!

 

[Vinay2013]

Sorry..I confused you with Mr. Hari Iyer.. my bad

I will certainly try JRiver as suggested. Thanks a lot for answering my dumb questions.

Vinay