NW-A808 Playing Atrac Advanced Lossless

[stargazer_tom1]

Hi,

Can anyone confirm if this player is playing the true lossless component of the AAL stream?

The files transfer as AAL and display on the device as Advanced Lossless when playing.

My query arises from modern lossless flash players being slow to change tracks etc when playing FLAC files whereas the NW-A808 is an older player with no lag and seems to handle playing large AAL file sizes fine.

Thanks

[Richard]

I will have to check this. I actually have an A-808 - never really used it much. I didn't think it played AAL, I know my NW-A847 does, but have to confess I never tried it on the 808. Will check it out and let you know.

[stargazer_tom1]

Great thanks look forward to your thoughts. How do you find the NW-A847and non english menus?

[Azureal]

I wish the NW-HD1 or NW-HD5 units could playback AAL files, I recall trying to transfer them in the AAL format a few years ago and being disappointed that it would not work.

[Richard]

Well, I finally got around to checking this out, but I'm not sure I can answer the original question definitively. I can confirm the A-808 plays AAL fine, but I can't figure out either if it is playing the true lossless element. The file size on the player when viewed via X-App or explorer looks right, but I am not sure what the hardware is actually doing.

On another note, I had forgotten how small the 808 actually was.. Kinda cute..

[sfbp]

I'd actually be extremely surprised if the ear could even HEAR the lossless part on a portable device, but I'm just an old, deaf sceptic. For me the benefit of AAL is that it is a universal (kindof) storage format. I can convert to different bit rates and the doing so creates no artifacts.

I do know that when it's transferred to HiMD for example, the lossless part is simply abandoned. If you're saying that the files are the 50-60% bigger when on the device than the corresponding lossy codec (eg HiSP 256kbps ATRAC) then you must be correct.

As you say, there may not be much of a way to tell if they're being processed. I am not sure that "ordinary" ear buds will even reproduce all that. My hunch is that you need reference monitor speakers and a large powerful amplifier before you can tell the difference between HiSP and HiSP-AAL.

[Richard]

Yes the file size when viewed on the player for an AAL-256 HiSP file of 5:49 in length was 29.7mb whilst the same file in regular Atrac3+ 352k had a file size of 14.8mb. I can't really hear a lot of difference I have to say when quickly scanning through the track.

I never really got into AAL and most of my library is still in regular Atrac3+ 352.

[sfbp]

As I sit listening to WMP (using the SS dll's of course) playing a new disk that I have AAL-ized, it occurs to me to wonder if I can tell the difference. IE, is the Windows setup actually playing the lossless part of these files?