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Topic: Sony Walkman Hi Res (Read 2326 times) previous topic - next topic
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Sony Walkman Hi Res

Just wondering if someone can help.

Normally I rip cd's in Foobar2k using FLAC, with the default bit depth = Auto.
When I transfer the output to my Sony A55 Walkman, it quite correctly does not list the album in the Hi Res category.

Ideally I would like all my FLAC albums grouped as HI Res (even though they are not strictly HR).

Just playing around, I've found that ripping with bit depth = 24bit instead of Auto, the Walkman lists the album as Hi Res.

So my question is. Is there any down side to using bit depth 24 instead of Auto?

Thanks for any feedback.

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #1 –
The audio is not changed by increasing the bit depth during your extraction from CD. Those new, lower signal level bits contain no signal, they are only zeros or very low level random noise.
I don't know what the FLAC encoding does with such bits, whether they increase file size noticeably or not, but the size of the FLAC file should be the only real difference.

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #2 –
Quote from: gospete on
Just playing around, I've found that ripping with bit depth = 24bit instead of Auto, the Walkman lists the album as Hi Res.
So my question is. Is there any down side to using bit depth 24 instead of Auto?
Well, there should not be a downside, but you will gain nothing when you rip a 16 bit source with a resolution of 24 bit. What is the advantage of being listed as HiRes? Only a questionable category

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #3 –
Quote from: AndyH-ha on
I don't know what the FLAC encoding does with such bits, whether they increase file size noticeably or not
Or not.
Code: [Select]
]$ sox -r44.1k -n -b16 pink_noise.16b.flac synth 60 pink norm -1
]$ sox pink_noise.16b.flac -b24 pink_noise.24b.flac
]$ ls -lh pink_noise.*
... 4.5M  pink_noise.16b.flac
... 4.5M  pink_noise.24b.flac

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #4 –
Wasted bits: http://www.audiograaf.nl/losslesstest/Lossless%20audio%20codec%20comparison%20-%20revision%204.pdf , section 2.3.

FLAC, WavPack, TAK and OptimFROG will notice that only 16 bits are nonzero (or 13 if applicable for that matter), and compress without size penalty. (Virtually so. FLAC requires an extra byte per block header.)
For Monkey's, ALAC and TTA, the zeroes will make the files much bigger. MPEG-4 ALS can do both.

Some idea of the differences that "wasted bits" capability makes on multi-channel: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=121770.msg1009876#msg1009876

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #5 –
I'd like to suggest ripping normally, and using the convert tool in foobar to produce 24 bit files if/when you want them. This way the original rips remain intact and your will never have to rip them again.

I've gone through numerous portable players over the years, each requiring different formats, but I've still got files that were ripped 20 years ago because I haven't had to rip them again, just convert from them as necessary.

Quote
Well, there should not be a downside, but you will gain nothing when you rip a 16 bit source with a resolution of 24 bit. What is the advantage of being listed as HiRes? Only a questionable category
I'm guessing the OP is just trying to make use of whatever limited categories are available on the player, trying to organise their collection.

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Dracaena on
I'd like to suggest ripping normally, and using the convert tool in foobar to produce 24 bit files if/when you want them. This way the original rips remain intact and your will never have to rip them again.

I've gone through numerous portable players over the years, each requiring different formats, but I've still got files that were ripped 20 years ago because I haven't had to rip them again, just convert from them as necessary.

Quote
Well, there should not be a downside, but you will gain nothing when you rip a 16 bit source with a resolution of 24 bit. What is the advantage of being listed as HiRes? Only a questionable category
I'm guessing the OP is just trying to make use of whatever limited categories are available on the player, trying to organise their collection.

Thanks. That's exactly right. I just want to group my Flac albums along with my HI Res albums together ie. to distinguish them from the rest of my MP3 files. As a novice, I just wanted to make sure that changing the bit depth to 24bit from Auto would not degrade quality in any way. I realise that by using 24bit I am fooling the Walkman to group them as hi res.

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #7 –
I probably wouldn't since it'll be confusing to figure out what is actually 16 bit and what is 24 bit if you set everything to 24 bit. 

Re: Sony Walkman Hi Res

Reply #8 –
I agree for my music library (sure, conversion whould be reversible - except if some idiot  hits the wrong checkbox about dithering).
But if these are disposable files anyway?