Ipod as a source....Am I killing my music?

[Febs]

Originally Posted by Dutchess of York

which is better ACC 256kbps or lossless?

Originally Posted by jaredy

Lossless is better because it is just that, lossless. AAC 256kbps is compressed, where as lossless compresses it to the point where there is just all the needed data for untouched audio reproduction (from the standpoint of what was on the CD).

I would suggest that for portable use, the AAC file is "better" because it will most likely sound indistinguishable to the lossless file at a fraction of the size.

[Dutchess of York]

a couple people have mentioned buying docks from 'turbo', what would be different form this dock and the apple ipod dock (that comes in the ipod box)

[kamenal]

I've put together a very decent portable (around the house) rig: iPod 4G+Hornet M+HD600+ALO Cryo Dock. From my limited experience (I am not a techie) I understand, that the weakest link in my rig is AAC encoding and I've ripped a few good quality CDs in lossless just to see how it is. The difference in quality is there, however I am having a hard time justifying the file size. Is it, like 5mgb vs 25 mgb per song, if I am not mistaken? I listen to classical mostly and I will have to make a decision, whether it is wortwile to re-rip my collection in lossless (about 500 CDs). What is your perception of a difference in SQ, AAC vs lossless? Thanks.

[c0mfortably_numb]

Originally Posted by Dutchess of York

a couple people have mentioned buying docks from 'turbo', what would be different form this dock and the apple ipod dock (that comes in the ipod box)

The "turbo" dock, only uses the audio pins, all the other pins are by passed and in theory should give you a cleaner sound.

[Henry Flower]

Originally Posted by kamenal

I am having a hard time justifying the file size. Is it, like 5mgb vs 25 mgb per song, if I am not mistaken?

Unless you're listening to uncompressed wav files (which is completely pointless), they shouldn't be anything like that big. Three minutes odd in flac or alac should be about ten meg.

Originally Posted by kamenal

What is your perception of a difference in SQ, AAC vs lossless? Thanks.

No-one else's perception matters - only yours. Personally I can't tell the difference between high-bitrate AAC and lossless, but how does that help you? Trust your own ears!

[Redo]

Originally Posted by Henry Flower

Unless you're listening to uncompressed wav files (which is completely pointless), they shouldn't be anything like that big. Three minutes odd in flac or alac should be about ten meg.

3 minutes in FLAC is more like 16megs on the low end, 25 megs on the high end. ALAC doesn't encode as efficiently either.


256kbps AAC for a portable iPod should be plenty sufficient. It's already very hard to tell the difference between the two with a nice source, let alone with a portable source.

[Dutchess of York]

Ok.....finished finding as many cds as possible, now converting to lossless

[n4k33n]

I just started hitting up the peer to peer networks for flac files.

[jaredy]

Agreed. An Ipod for the source doesn't necessitate the use of lossless unless you really want to. And, indeed, the size can greatly very depending on how the song needs it.

Originally Posted by Redo

3 minutes in FLAC is more like 16megs on the low end, 25 megs on the high end. ALAC doesn't encode as efficiently either.


256kbps AAC for a portable iPod should be plenty sufficient. It's already very hard to tell the difference between the two with a nice source, let alone with a portable source.