jwvm wrote:
Why do you care what the format is if it is lossless? Just pick a
player that plays a lossless format and you are all set. Note that you
should not have to re-rip the tracks. Conversion from one lossless
format to another will not result in any loss in quality and is trivial
with commonly available software. Note also that you might also want to
rethink your concerns about compressed audio. Both FLAC and WMA
lossless are compressed formats. Also, the amount of distortion present
in lossy moderately-compressed files is likely to be no worse than
distortion from the player itself. Portable players need to operate at
low voltages and conserve power. As a result, they will have somewhat
higher distortion than home stereo units. Whether or not the distortion
can be heard is a whole different story. The bottom line is that you
should be more concerned with how a portable player sounds rather than
what file types it will play.


windcrest wrote:
Does anyone know of a portable audio player that can play both WMA
lossless and/or FLAC files? I have spent the last year or so ripping
all my CD's to wma lossless for home use, now I am at a loss for
finding a wma lossless audio player. I am willing to re-rip all the
CD's to FLAC and give up on wma lossless if I can find a FLAC player,
but would rather find a wma lossless player. (note, I am not willing
to listen to compressed audio).

Thanks for any suggestions on a player.


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I should have said that I can't use lossy compressed audio, I have no
problems with lossless compression. Much of my tracks I process for
karaoke, and mp3's wipe out the phase relationships that allow the
vocal part to be removed, the center phase is lost even at high bit
rates. IOW I can remove vocals just fine from CD's or wma lossless
files, but that becomes impossible with mp3 or other lossy compression.
I entertain as a dj, karaoke host and solo guitarist with backing
tracks. In general mp3's sound pretty ice-picky through PA systems and
I avoid that format for more than the karaoke issue.

The problem is that I already ripped a couple thousand CD's to wma
lossless because the quality was so good. I also proved that I can
convert lossless wma back to wav flawlwssly, IOW the original and
converted wav files checksum to each other and are identical, using the
undocumented Microsoft wma lossless to pcm converter utility. I guess
I just assumed that I would one day find a player for wma lossless. In
after thought I probably should have maybe gone with flac as there are
more players for that. As it is now I still have to bring a laptop to
gigs, there are situations where I dont want a laptop and would prefer
a player (like coffee shop gigs where all I need is amp, guitar and
player).

So the ideal player right now would be one that can do wma lossless and
flac (a high-end audiophile player if you will).

This is my first post here so I figured on finding some experts on
lossless audio and what would be considered an audiophile-quality
player. I figure CD's will be obsolete in a few years and am a little
saddened by everyone in the world listening to lossy compression
through earbuds.


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