Please check the forums at forums.slimdevices.com to see whether the "WMA Lossless" codec in Vista is supported by Slim or transcoded to some other format which obviously did not sound lossless when you listened. There are some known and discussed issues with Vista and Slim on the forums there. I use Apple Lossless for my Squeezebox 3 and cannot tell the difference between SB3 and Linn Unidisk 2.1 or Marantz SA-1. If the WAV files are working for you, by all means stick with them. Most Slim users use EAC to rip their music into FLAC for use in Slim devices.
Is WMA lossless under Vista lossless?
Here is my experience. I got a new PC with Windows Vista business installed. Could not use my Apogee Mini-dac anymore. I tried various ways to install the driver but it failed to install every which way I tried.
It was too late to roll back Vista to XP, so I decided to bite the bullet and order Slim Devices Transporter. Had some difficulty installing Slim server but changing compatibility mode to XP worked.
Next task was to rip some CD’s to the new computer. I fired up Media Player under Vista to do this. Based on some friend’s advice, I selected WMA lossless format.
This did not sound good at all on the SD Transporter! I had another person listen as well, and we both agreed it sounded compressed and “scratchy”.
I brought up Media Player to see what other options I had. And there, lo and behold was WAV lossless. I chose this and ripped a couple of CD’s. I got another pleasant surprise! All the tag information was there too.
I opened Slim Server and it saw all the Tag information as well. Now on to the listening test. To no surprise it sounded as good as a CD player and some songs even better.
I cannot explain why WMA lossless did not sound right.
I also have a Notebook running XP professional, I down loaded version 11 of Media player and there also is now option for Wav format. I ripped couple of CD’s in the Notebook and there too showed up all the tag info.
Wav files were not overly larger then WMA lossless.
Just for information purpose, my new PC with Vista is a Quad Core Extreme with WD 10k Raptor drives. I have 2 DVD drives in there and was able rip 2 CD’s at the same time. Very fast, indeed.
It was too late to roll back Vista to XP, so I decided to bite the bullet and order Slim Devices Transporter. Had some difficulty installing Slim server but changing compatibility mode to XP worked.
Next task was to rip some CD’s to the new computer. I fired up Media Player under Vista to do this. Based on some friend’s advice, I selected WMA lossless format.
This did not sound good at all on the SD Transporter! I had another person listen as well, and we both agreed it sounded compressed and “scratchy”.
I brought up Media Player to see what other options I had. And there, lo and behold was WAV lossless. I chose this and ripped a couple of CD’s. I got another pleasant surprise! All the tag information was there too.
I opened Slim Server and it saw all the Tag information as well. Now on to the listening test. To no surprise it sounded as good as a CD player and some songs even better.
I cannot explain why WMA lossless did not sound right.
I also have a Notebook running XP professional, I down loaded version 11 of Media player and there also is now option for Wav format. I ripped couple of CD’s in the Notebook and there too showed up all the tag info.
Wav files were not overly larger then WMA lossless.
Just for information purpose, my new PC with Vista is a Quad Core Extreme with WD 10k Raptor drives. I have 2 DVD drives in there and was able rip 2 CD’s at the same time. Very fast, indeed.
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