GungaDin
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2008
- Posts
- 68
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- 10
Sorry to disagree with you you but AIFF files are NOT compressed at all. They are windows version of WAV files.
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) was developed by Apple. It's not specific to any particular operating system but has mostly been used with Macs since Apple was the originator. It's true they are, like WAV files, not compressed. Their biggest advantage over WAV files is that AIFF files can store metadata. Metadata with WAV's is much more hit and miss. dbPoweramp will put metadata on your WAV files.
There was an article floating around the internet years ago wherein the author swore there was a slight but audible difference between music files ripped straight to WAV or AIFF and music files that had been ripped to FLAC or ALAC and then converted to WAV or AIFF. A lot of people ridiculed it but some agreed. It can be a surprisingly emotional subject.
This might be worth a read: http://www.head-fi.org/t/366271/flac-vs-wav-format-surprising-quality-differences
I converted my CD collection to FLAC several years ago. I accidentally burned one disc as a WAV file. Using a pair of Event monitors and a Focusrite sound card, I compared it to the FLAC file that I'd also burned. I was surprised and disappointed to find that the WAV file seemed to sound better. I'd already burned everything to FLAC and had limited disc space so there was no going back. Tons of people on line will tell you you're a flaming *bleep* if you think you can detect a difference between compressed-but-non-lossy formats and uncompressed formats but you may find that there is a difference. Why? I don't know. Processing load for the CPU? Possibly, but I don't know.
Is there enough detectable difference between the formats to bother converting all your ALAC's to AIFF? Only your ears can say. Storage is cheap so I'd say go for it and switch between the two to see if you notice any benefit.