WAV files and playing them.

Steve S.

Member
I just purchased a new CD player. The Yamaha CD S300. It has a pretty good DAC and a USB port in front to connect the iPod or a flash drive. Pretty cool feature I think. Unfortunately, it doesn't play FLAC or WAV files. I don't know if It will matter to me because I don't know what I play. I mean. I think my iPod is really just loaded with MP3 files.

But If I come across WAV files somehow either through my laptop or a flash drive, I'll be looking to add a separate DAC I believe. Is this correct?
 
A DAC won't do it on its own. At least not a traditional DAC. You'll need another player or a computer to play FLAC files.

Some Blu Ray players can play MP3s, WAVs and/or FLAC files from a thumb drive. Until I just added a laptop to my main system, I mostly listened to such files via a Panasonuc Blu Ray

You can burn WAV files to a CDR. WAV files are what are on store-bought CDs.
 
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The OPs not talking a DAC, but a CD player. Even then, all depends on what the firmware is programmed to recognize. I've got a couple that will play WMA, and one would think it's sister format would play as well, but no go.
 
The OPs not talking a DAC, but a CD player.

That's even worse as WAV files are literally exactly what is on a CD. You can even take a CD from a computer program or computer game, put it in a CD player, and if there are any wav files on the disk, it will usually play them. Makes sense that it would have trouble with FLAC, but not WAV.
 
I think he's wanting to play WAV files on a USB disk.

Speaking of which, does the manual specifically say you can't play WAVs from the USB stick? I'd try it. I think it will work.
 
Most CD players I've run across won't play a wav. You need to burn CDs with the Red Book specification, which is super easy with various programs such as Nero. Not a clue about new CD players with a USB slot. You'd think they'd at least play MP3s, don't know about wav or other formats. The manual must say.
 
The manual says it plays MP3 and WMA files. Other reviews i've read also stated that the cd players usb port did not support FLAC or WAV. The lossless files. I don't even know about the files as far as which one I have or don't.
 
Well. I know that I can also turn anything into MP3 through the Macbook And as I delve further into this and I gleam more and more info, I think I would want only FLAC or WAV files because they are LOSSLESS and will sound better. Tell me please if I'm mistaken.
 
You wouldn't have to convert to MP3. You can convert to WAV format and burn to CD. Of course, that won't restore lost bits if converting from an MP3 and you'll lose bits converting from a 24/192 FLAC file to WAV.

I still think adding an entry level but not too old of a laptop into at least something like the Schiit Modi is about the best bang for your audio buck for those embracing digital technology. Plays all formats (though one needs to go higher end than the Modi to natively support higher than 24/96 files) and no conversion necessary. Plus you can listen directly to Youtube. Not always the very best quality, but it's awfully convenient and there's a ton of great material.
 
I've seen more then one CD player completely unable to parse, let alone read any cdr. I suspect at its heart it was some kind of DRM on the cd player itself (I'm looking at YOU, Sony!)

But normally, if you use, say K3b, choose burn audio cd, drag wavs to k3b, and it will burn a 'perfect' cd that plays on most devices just fine.

For keeping your collection digitally, IMO, you ALWAYS want to keep the original WAV file, (as noted earlier, PCM) audacious plays wav's just fine, as do most computer based audio software.

MP3, even done at the highest bitrate is still 1/3d the size of a wav, so I have my entire collection duplicated as mp3's, and those are what I usually put on usb sticks for my van, orprotable computer, etc. etc, etc, mp3 is perfectly fine for non-audiophile listening, (I.e. NOT on your best system, in the 'sweet spot').

The only problem long term for me is, most computer audio software disregards any metadata with regards to wavs, so usually plays in alphabetical order, instead of original track order, but that's fairly minor, and easily corrected with a .m3u playlist, or the equivelant
 
The only problem long term for me is, most computer audio software disregards any metadata with regards to wavs, so usually plays in alphabetical order, instead of original track order, but that's fairly minor, and easily corrected with a .m3u playlist, or the equivelant

This is because metadata is actually part of MP3 and FLAC files. It's one of the reasons I use FLAC. The other being the lossless compression. To make a conventional audio CD I merely drag the files to whatever burning program I'm using and tell it to create an audio CD. The files are automatically converted to the proper format.
 
I realize it's actually PCM which is supposed to be streamed, but in dealing with various formats, if one converts to 16/44.1 WAV format and burns it that info to a CD, that CD is playable on most modern CD players? And why do programs like Exact Audio Copy create an indexed WAV file that can then be burned to a CD that will be recognized as the original CD?

I could be wrong, but I always thought that a 16/44.1 WAV was the storable version of the streamed CD format.
 
There's no need to convert files to WAV format. Just tell the program you're using to create the CD that it's to be an audio CD. The result will be a standard CD playable on just about any player.

Windows labels the "files" on a standard CD as cda files. If you pull up a directory of an audio CD you'll see a bunch of 0 byte files labeled cda.
 
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