I'm aware that Sonos doesn't natively support WMA lossless, and due to processing power and/or licensing issues probably never will. However, I own a large-ish collection in that format (about 60% of a library of around 12,000 songs, the remainder are lossy from my wife's collection), and several media players whose preferred format is WMA lossless, including the three rooms where I have sufficient quality amplification and speakers for the difference to be noticeable.
I'm interested in using the Sonos Connect (probably a few of them) to feed my Niles Auriel multi-room system, and in the rooms this will be used for largely don't matter if I'm using 320 kbps MP3 or a lossless format. So, I'm wondering if there's a method of transcoding on the fly and feeding it to Sonos, or would using Sonos and keeping WMA lossless for other locations mean that I'd have to maintain two separate libraries?
I have plenty of compute power available in various servers to do an on the fly transcode, as well as plenty of disk space, but maintaining two separate libraries in sync with each other, including playlists and such, would seem problematic at best. Is there a better way? Sonos seems such a better and less expensive choice than using an Autonomic Mirage for my needs, since I basically need a dumb player with decent DAC, and not a full-up music server with media management, as I have that already. For instance, will Sonos simply talk to a LMS that can do the transcode?
Thanks in advance for the help!
Question
WMA Lossless transcoding options?
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FLAC isn't supported on WMC or extenders properly, and gets downsampled on the way out where it is supported. Plus, I have receivers that handle WMA Lossless but not FLAC. Essentially, my lossless format options are wav and WMA lossless in those four zones - three of which have HiFi amplification and speakers.
Oh, and because my car supports WMA Lossless but not FLAC, though 320 kbps MP3 would be more than plenty in my car, that still leads to a double library.
Oh, and because my car supports WMA Lossless but not FLAC, though 320 kbps MP3 would be more than plenty in my car, that still leads to a double library.
Oh, and because my car supports WMA Lossless but not FLAC, though 320 kbps MP3 would be more than plenty in my car, that still leads to a double library.
You mentioned LMS in your OP, are you currently using it for music?
Oh, and because my car supports WMA Lossless but not FLAC, though 320 kbps MP3 would be more than plenty in my car, that still leads to a double library.
You mentioned LMS in your OP, are you currently using it for music?
Not at this time, but it came up in my search for options so I gave it a quick install and try out with a software player. The Niles system has fairly limited 2-way control of IP based music players - Autonomic Mirage, Sonos, and any LMS player (including some fabulously expensive ones). Mirage is overkill, while things like the Logitech Transporter or Squeezebox Touch are at best quite old and getting older, with no sign of new players with onboard DACs short of audiophile grade with the appropriate price tags.
Considering the entire line was discontinued years ago, it would follow that there is no sign of new players.
If you have a permanent broadband internet connection available for all your receivers have a look at Plex, which is also compatible with Sonos. Among other things it feeds your WMA content to Sonos without the 65.000 track limit or audio format limitation.
Edit: just realized that ffdshow is only supporting WMAPro, but still no mention of WMALossless. Bummer. 😕
Edit: just realized that ffdshow is only supporting WMAPro, but still no mention of WMALossless. Bummer. 😕
Considering the entire line was discontinued years ago, it would follow that there is no sign of new players.
Not from Logitech, but several audiophile-grade systems continue to be produced based on it, since the software part of it is covered under GPL and still under development. The Musical Fidelity M6 Encore, as well as Bryston's BDP-3 and BDP-Pi come to mind, but either they require an external DAC (expensive and not necessary here) or they carry the audiophile price tag - when I won't ever be using it for any sort of critical listening.
Edit: just realized that ffdshow is only supporting WMAPro, but still no mention of WMALossless. Bummer. :/
Very big bummer - I didn't think about Plex (odd since I even own a license for my dad's Plex media server), but something like that would be ideal.
And yes, I have a very fast internet connection, and a rack of network gear to get everything everywhere, including a fiber optic switch to make sure there are no bottlenecks moving from switch to switch, as well as singlemode fiber run through the walls to strategic locations (I use multimode within the equipment racks). I sized it so that at maximum possible media load, there's no bottlenecks to anything in the house, with my storage server sporting quad teamed gigabit NICs (and a storage array able to fill that pipe). Loading game CDs and DVDs from my ISO storage, while sending 4K HD to every zone, won't even cause it to break a sweat - the limiting factor is always the link into the device itself. The wireless controller will even move you to another WAP if someone else is hogging the bandwidth on your nearest one.
I work in IT, and when I bought my house recently (it's my first house), I wanted it equipped so that there was never a question about the ability of the backbone network. So I budgeted, designed and built it that way, with modularity so that as things evolve, I can keep it up with the times, and put the highest quality cable into the walls that I could use, so the entire house is 10 GBase-T ready.
Not from Logitech, but several audiophile-grade systems continue to be produced based on it, since the software part of it is covered under GPL and still under development. The Musical Fidelity M6 Encore, as well as Bryston's BDP-3 and BDP-Pi come to mind, but either they require an external DAC (expensive and not necessary here) or they carry the audiophile price tag - when I won't ever be using it for any sort of critical listening.
I've never used WMA Lossless but I'll take a shot at some of your questions.
The LMS2UPNP plugin turns any Sonos box just into any SB player. https://github.com/philippe44/LMS-to-uPnP So very easy to take a Sonos Connect and use it as a Squeezebox player.
If you are using a Windows computer WMA lossless transcoding should work with LMS (you are using windows?). Download a LMS client to your windows box such as Squeezelite to test it out. https://sourceforge.net/projects/lmsclients/files/squeezelite/windows/ and try it out.
FYI You can build a cheap LMS player with Picoreplayer and an RPI/hifiberry. No reason to spend big bucks on the ones you list above. https://archimago.blogspot.ca/2017/03/howto-building-and-installing-raspberry.html
But the Connect should work for you with LMS and has the benefit of also being a Sonos player, gives you more options down the road.
Finally FYI the SB Touch has native WMA Lossless decoding.
The SB Touch does do it natively, but those things seem to have risen in price, yet are still at newest 5 years old? Not ideal when the WAF is on the line. 🙂 Picoreplayer/hifiberry look interesting, but support/things working is my concern there ... plus stuffing an RPI into a very electrically noisy space. LMS2UPNP plus a Sonos seems likely the best as both are still reasonably well supported for now.
I know eventually I'll do the massive transcode over to FLAC or similar, but with so many things stuck on WMA Lossless, this is a bit of a bridge for 4-5 years.
I know eventually I'll do the massive transcode over to FLAC or similar, but with so many things stuck on WMA Lossless, this is a bit of a bridge for 4-5 years.
I know eventually I'll do the massive transcode over to FLAC or similar, but with so many things stuck on WMA Lossless, this is a bit of a bridge for 4-5 years.
I grabbed a samle WMA lossless file from http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/lossless/ and successfully played it through LMS to a Connect. LMS running on Fedora, didn't do anything special to get this working, just worked. Doesn't mean it will play out the same for you but hope it does.
None of these solutions are "well supported". The risk with the Connect is that Sonos could change their firmware and it may stop working with LMS. IMO you are mistaken about the Picoreplayer - most regard it as the best LMS client. You can get a Touch for under $150 on ebay. WAF should be about the same no matter what you use as the squeezebox control software works the same with every box.
How about a new car radio? 🙂 Ditch WMA lossless and you can get whatever you want without worry. LOL
The WAF I'm concerned about is that throwing old hardware that had a limited shelf life to begin with at a system, dependent on a company that axed their products years ago, isn't likely to lead to reliability. A RPi is at least looking to be cheap, so there's that. I may just do a Sonos Connect for streaming media where it really excels, and RPi for the music library, and separate them, then just run the RPi somewhere less electrically noisy and bring in the audio feed over some good shielded cables (Bluejeans or similar).
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