Playing high resolution audio via USB flash drive on PIoneer SC-05 receiver (1 Viewer)

[Dave Moritz]

I have a Pioneer SC-05 7.1 receiver and have played standard mp3 music and am wondering if this receiver will play other files like flac or alac from the flash drive or from a Windows 7 pc? Granted the flash drive is the only option right now as I still need to get some cat6 cable and a 4 port switch that will sit next to my receiver. I see no reason to download any high resolution audio just to listen to it on my pc if the receiver will not play the file. Not a big fan of listening to music on my pc even though I built a nice pc and have a decent 2.1 set of Polk Audio pc speakers. They do not compair to my Altec Lancing A-7's I use with my Pioneer SC-05 receiver in my home theater. I looked through my owners manual and dug around the internet a little put help would be very much appreciated.

 

[schan1269]

Granted I don't do much "home listening" to MP3/FLAC...etc... I also don't use USB for it either...so... The Ipad/Ipod/Droid phones in the house will all stream FLAC via 1/8th and Bluetooth to all of my AVR. The one AVR I have with networking(NR1008) I don't even use it(there is an Acer Revo in the room connected HDMI). So, even if you load a song on a stick(how hard is that?) and it doesn't work...you'll have other options. The Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver(Model number starts F8Z) and the Miccus Blubridge both accept high bit rate...

 

[Dave Moritz]

I do not currently own any high resolution audio files and spending money to download an album only to have it stuck on the pc. Right now I am stuck working part time so spending $18 - $26 for a high resolution album that will not play via my receiver is not a great idea for me.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Right now I am stuck working part time so spending $18 - $26 for a high resolution album that will not play via my receiver is not a great idea for me.

I've purchased a few HD albums(from HDTracks) and haven't really noticed much of a difference. They do provide flacs though, so if the prices come down to match CD, I'll start buying them again. On the other hand, my CD ripped to flacs sound *much* better than the mp3 I ripped. So I recommend you do continue to investigate playing them on your Pioneer.

 

[schan1269]

There is every reason to start using FLAC. I went "back" into my Itunes and re-loaded everything from MP3 to FLAC. Yeah...it took a while...but it was free... Less than 40% of my Itunes is download though. The vast majority is from disc or a downmixed SACD/DVD-A. Quite a bit of the FLAC I play via Spotify. And am currently trying to decide if I want to continue paying for Spotify...or jump ship to MOG.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Am trying to create flac files with a program called exact audio copy but all it insists on doing is creating wav files! I have downloaded a few songs with iTunes but have no idea how to redownload them as flac's. Now I am on iTunes trying to figure out how to download songs as flac files and I am hating iTunes all over again! :f Not worried about download times as I have Verizon Fios Quantum and get up to 171mb/sec download speeds.

 

[Al.Anderson]

I tried both Winamp and MediaMonkey. Both have their pluses and minuses, but I settled in on Winamp. You have to get the paid version of either to rip flacs, but it wasn't much, $30 I think. And for what it's worth, both can be used as a replacement for iTunes to load portable devices, including iPods. (It wasn't an exaustive test, but I'd say MediaMonkey is probably the cleaner, more stable tool; however, they use a lot of secondary information containers (directories for samples, playlists, and that kind of thing), that you have to take the time to learn how to use. I just wanted to rip CDs, so I gave up some features for simplistic ripping and some bugs.)

[Quite a bit of the FLAC I play via Spotify. And am currently trying to decide if I want to continue paying for Spotify...or jump ship to MOG./QUOTE] I didn't know those services provided content in the flac format. Excellent info; I'll be checking them out.