[john480]

which is better loveless,aac,mp3, wave???

 

[Oliver :)]

No reason to love lossless less

It really depends upon your needs. WAV/AIFF is not necessary if you use iTunes/iPod since ALAC will give you the same perfect quality at less space-expense. AAC is better than MP3, yet MP3 is the most compatible format.

 

[john480]

ok alac or aac?

 

[Oliver :)]

Well, what are you going to do & what do you want?

Do you want to store a lot of music at a quality level most people cannot differentiate from CDDA? Use AAC at 320kbps. Really good quality unless you have a very good system. Said good system will show that the music lacks bass precision and plasticty, especially in an A/B test. We're talking about a minimum $2500 stereo speaker system or $1000 portable setup.

Do you want a versatile music archive that will allow you to make perfect quality mix- or backup CDs while still allowing you to create compressed files for other (say portable) purposes? You have no HD-space issues? Use ALAC.

Note that I am talking about my perception here. Many people even on this board that accumulates people who tend to care about quality claim they cannot hear a difference between lossless & 256kbps AAC.

 

[john480]

what im looking for is the best sound not more space .im going to be useing two way
1 .ipod g5 30gig with senn hd650 moon cables,xin supermicro
2 .home system marantz sr 8500 and triad speakers

 

[Oliver :)]

ALAC.

Do you already have the 5G?

 

[ScubaSteve87]

I know of a few memebers who keep ALAC on their computers and then convert to 320 AAC, Mp3, etc. when they put it on their ipod. Personally I used lossless on my comp and I haven't used my ipod in a while. I stll have old 128 aac files on there. I know that in a AB test I prob couldn't hear the difference, but I just feel better listening to ALAC that I have ripped right off of a brand new hard copy of the cd

 

[john480]

yes apple video 30 gig

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve87 I know that in a AB test I prob couldn't hear the difference, but I just feel better listening to ALAC that I have ripped right off of a brand new hard copy of the cd

Yes, your psyche is very important factor here too. I know I would not make out too many differences on the subway from 320AAC to ALAC, even with my system

, but I would also know there are differences. It would nag.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john480 yes apple video 30 gig

Ok well, otherwise I'd say go for the 60GB one with 64MB RAM to avoid occasional dropouts when using ALAC. I did not read about anyone having that problem with a 5G anyway though, it might be just the old firmware in my 3G.

 

[john480]

it doesnt show alac only aac

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john480 it doesnt show alac only aac

What do you mean?

 

[john480]

when i go on down load it only show these formats
aac
aiff
apple loveless
mp3
wave

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john480 when i go on down load it only show these formats apple loveless

Apple Lossless (you have it with the loveless today, eh?

) = ALAC = Apple Lossless Audio Codec

 

[iamdone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver Ok well, otherwise I'd say go for the 60GB one with 64MB RAM to avoid occasional dropouts when using ALAC. I did not read about anyone having that problem with a 5G anyway though, it might be just the old firmware in my 3G.

There are no dropoff issues with ALAC on the 30gb 5th gen. You still do get the occasional skip where it plays a few seconds of the track and then jumps to the next one. But once it's playing the track, there are no problems at all even on single ALAC tracks that are over an hour long.

I definitely recommend ALAC for your home setup. Hard drive space is cheap and you want the best files. You also would have to rerip from the cd if you ever wanted to go to lossless if you went with AAC at first. But with lossless you can always transcode to whatever you want in the future.

For portable use, people have many different opinions on that. I have highend iems, so I prefer lossless. I also have my ipod rechanging most of the day so battery life is not an issue. And I don't mind having a smaller portable library because I can out my music about once a week.