Having bought the Astell & Kern, I want to start transferring music files on to it from my desktop. Dave left some flac files on it which sound excellent but all of the files on my PC are .wav.
There seem to be loads of (free) convertors available, but which one is best? Also are flac files the best option, taking size and playback quality into account?
TIA
dbPoweramp
I use an Application called Traders Little Helper @Jim. It will basically convert any format to any other audio format that I’ve use (included arcane things like .shn files). If you want to do batches you’ll need something less rustic though. You may also need a metadata editor to tag your FLACs properly and associate artwork so try MP3tag (it’ll do FLACs too).
If you want lossless, use FLAC.
You will need something like mp3tag, to get metedata on the converted files.
You can use a basic wav to flac converter here http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html
In more detail, I use a combination of dbPoweramp and MusicBee.
dbPoweramp can convert just a few files, or vast numbers in a batch
This brings us to the key problem. WAV files don’t have tags like Artist, title, album etc. (there are some fudges, but in general they don’t).
If your WAV files are systematically named then dbPoweramp will at least have a go at inferring tags from the file names.
I then import into MusicBee. In general a music management program won’t have a clue what your new FLAC file is if it doesn’t have tags.
MusicBee has the notion of an “Inbox” - a holding pen for files before they’re added to the library. So you can go in and sort out tags before adding / moving the files to the library proper.
This is quite a deep rabbit hole. It kind of depends on how serious you are about digital.
dbPoweramp costs.
MusicBee is free (no idea why).
Sorry, missed this.
Yes. The same data is present in the FLAC file as is in the WAV file, it’s just compressed (this is lossless compression, not lossy like mp3, the data is exactly the same, like a zip file) and has tags (see above).
Also the format is open (“F” = “free”) not tied to the whims of a large corporate.
Playback of WAV and FLAC should be identical. If it’s not then hardware or software is broken, not the source data.
dbPoweramp
it isn’t a free app but it works really well
Best FLAC encoder is FLAC.
https://xiph.org/flac/documentation_tools_flac.html
(All DBPoweramp does is call flac itself).
Well yes but 
Wait, wut? You think @Jim isn’t capable of mastering the command line? 
Oh ye of little faith, I’ve seen how he uses buttons.
Not sure if this has been mentioned already, however dbPoweramp is an effective wav - flac converter.
What the fuck is a “command line” 
It’s what I use periodically to nuke the forum
It’s a bit like a manual gearbox, only for competent users.
You mean I won’t have to worry about it because it’s not absolutely necessary?
Depends if you want to get the best out of it, or have it dumbed down.
Well, most 911 owners must be dumb then because since PDK was introduced, waaaay more autos have been sold than manuals. 
… and BTW, you were having a major rant about thread shitting a couple of weeks back. I reckon a name change is on the cards…
A.K.A. carpet bombing given the target.