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Should I convert WMA files to FLAC? Or Re-rip? Or?

merlynski

merlynski

Curmudgeon Electronicist
I just set up JRiver on a number of my computers on my network and am very happy with it. I had really gotten to hate MS Media Player for its poor meta-data handling, and poor organization features. I have a noticable sound quality improvement. So, most of my audio files are WMA. Is there a good reason, from a sound quality viewpoint, to convert them all to FLAC files? Or to re-rip all my CDs to FLAC? JRiver seem to have resolved the meta-data issues I was having. My files are all on one network location, on an old WIN7 machine that has been stripped down (software) to just basic windows and is/will be used for nothing else. JRiver and its Library files are on my Livingroom PC. I don't use anything fancy, just the hardware on the Dell Win10 pc. When I finish refurbing my SX-1050 it will become the power driving a pair of Qb speakers.
 
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I'd re-rip your CDs to insure all the metadata is captured. I suspect you've have metadata gaps converting from WMA to FLAC.

Lots of free rippers out there but I went ahead and licensed dbpoweramp's cdripper software. I've never had a metadata glitch or poor quality rip using it.
 
Yamaki said:
I'd re-rip your CDs to insure all the metadata is captured. I suspect you've have metadata gaps converting from WMA to FLAC.

Lots of free rippers out there but I went ahead and licensed dbpoweramp's cdripper software. I've never had a metadata glitch or poor quality rip using it.
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Thank you for your response. How does cdripper's capabilities improve on or exceed JRiver's ripping capabilities for sound quality and metadata aquisition?
 
I have no idea as I never used JRiver to rip a CD. I know you can use JRiver to rip a CD but have never tried it.

My point was I've tried the freeware rippers out there and experienced spotty results which has not been the case with dbpoweramp cdripper.

I do know, however, that JRiver's database is substantial and I was able to recover metadata lost in a ripping process using it.
 
WMA lossless is as good as any format. If you ripped it lossless it contains everything. I have 3000 CDs ripped WMA lossless. JRiver reads them fine. I think the only reason to change to FLAC would be to save disk space. Shouldn't sound any better. You should be able to find conversion software if you really want to convert WMA to FLAC.
 
rwartner said:
WMA lossless is as good as any format. If you ripped it lossless it contains everything. I have 3000 CDs ripped WMA lossless. JRiver reads them fine. I think the only reason to change to FLAC would be to save disk space. Shouldn't sound any better. You should be able to find conversion software if you really want to convert WMA to FLAC.
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Yamaki said:
I have no idea as I never used JRiver to rip a CD. I know you can use JRiver to rip a CD but have never tried it.

My point was I've tried the freeware rippers out there and experienced spotty results which has not been the case with dbpoweramp cdripper.

I do know, however, that JRiver's database is substantial and I was able to recover metadata lost in a ripping process using it.
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Thanks again. That is my experience also, with the exception of one CD cover artwork image (JRiver picked a totally non-related one) it found every one I was missing with no problem. When it was unsure it asked me to pick from the options, including differing image qualities.

rwartner said:
WMA lossless is as good as any format. If you ripped it lossless it contains everything. I have 3000 CDs ripped WMA lossless. JRiver reads them fine. I think the only reason to change to FLAC would be to save disk space. Shouldn't sound any better. You should be able to find conversion software if you really want to convert WMA to FLAC.
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Thanks for replying. JRiver has the ability to convert WMA to FLAC, and I will probably just let it rip new music with it to FLAC and not bother to convert. My storage location is now on an old, small form factor, WIN7 HP desktop that had a failed HDD. I put a brand new 320GB drive in it, restored from backup, then cleaned off all the software I didn't need, trimmed down Windows. It has a 233GB partition for music storage that is 95% free. Most of the WMA files were ripped with highest quality, largest size and greatest bit rate. I may re-rip a few that have deteriorated after being copied from location to location over time, but not 'just because'. My biggest concern was audio quality, not file size.
My real problem started when I migrated all my music to a NAS, which is now getting old also. Since it was networked and not a Microsoft device Windows Media Player would not keep track of metadata properly and consistently, plus the pc the old music partition was on is a very old Vista machine. The different versions of Media Player (on it and other network computers) seem to have scrambled some of the metadata when they 'updated' it. I suspect some of that was because Microsoft changed their data server name and location for different versions of MP. JRiver will be consistent on all the machines since their license mode allows for installation on multiple computers. JRiver is only the second shareware/trialware software I have ever bought a license for.
 
I use MusicBee and WMP ( Ripping Only ) and have only had the occasional meta data issue, mostly obscure CD's that just don't show up. Those I've fixed by hand, like I said rarely happens.

Looks like you've got a solid plan and good equipment / software. So, I say Have Fun!

Mark Gosdin
 
Hey! I had also used MS Media Player. The quality has gotten worse. I don't know how you, it was challenging for me to find an application or a website that converts music qualitatively and for free. I have been looking for such an application for a long time, and during all this time, I could not listen to music. Very complicated for me. My friends told me about converting music from YouTube in WAV format on coconvert.com. I tried, and now I am converting through this site for a while. You can try to convert through it. The quality is good.
 
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merlynski said:
Most of the WMA files were ripped with highest quality, largest size and greatest bit rate.
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Those comments suggest it is not WMA lossless, but WMA lossy compression.

You need to know if you ripped to lossless WMA or lossy WMA.

If you ripped to lossless WMA, you won't gain anything, but the conversion should be perfect.

If you ripped to lossy WMA, converting to FLAC will only increase storage space, and will not improve audio quality.

merlynski said:
I may re-rip a few that have deteriorated after being copied from location to location over time,
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File copying should not degrade the quality; computer file copying is bit perfect, unless there is some gross error.

If you have transcoded from one lossy format to another lossy format, that would cause degradation.

merlynski said:
It has a 233GB partition for music storage that is 95% free.
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That suggests you only have about 11GB of music. That also points to both lossy WMA, and a small collection; if you consider an average CD to be 500MB, it's about 22 CDs, lossless. Lossy, it's about 100 CDs. I'd just re-rip them to FLAC, and be done with it.

Good, fast CD drive, Exact Audio Copy configured properly to use AccurateRip, and maximise read speed. If you get AccurateRip inconsistencies, use CueTools to correct the errors.
 
ChloePat said:
Do you have to download these programs or you can do it online?
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Just an opinion, but I'd not use an online "free" option to rip music, or transcode to another format. Besides the fact that some these online services carry a degree of security risk, programs like dbPoweramp can compare your rip digitally to a trusted database to assure that your rips are accurate and high quality.
 
cpt_paranoia said:
You need to know if you ripped to lossless WMA or lossy WMA.
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Some of both, as I was not aware there was a difference years ago, when I first started building a ripped library. Once I did learn the difference I always set it to max quality and file size (lossless). For some of the music, the original CD is long gone, so it will just have to stay the way it is. I have re-ripped a bunch of it where I still have the CD, or re-acquired the CD and re-ripped it, as FLAC.
 
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Not sure if this is possible on your system. My 3000 CDs lossless are 800GB. I have 2TB external USB drive to contain them. Also a backup copy. If your computer has USB I would get external drive.
 
As mentioned, jRiver has EAC (Lite) built in, so no worries there. Ripping to FLAC using the default settings won't result in any data loss (or improvement) whether your WMA files are lossless or lossy. Any audible improvement you may hear is directly the result of jRiver's internal handling of the raw file.

One tip - jRiver uses 96/24 for internal handling if you've enabled any of their advance features. I've set everything to that rate to eliminate any unnecessary conversions in the chain that can result in hard hits on the processor with potential data and/or latency errors. WASAPI is the next best thing to bit perfect and your best bet for accuracy. You'll also want to leave your system volume to 100% - any other setting enables DirectSound as well, adding an unnecessary layer of conversion to the mix. I use jRiver's internal volume exclusively. jRiver should also be set to take exclusive control of your audio to eliminate any competition for resources during playback. Stick with the default latency settings unless you have some noticeable issues.
 
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