[slickooz]

Hi, everyone I don't know if this belongs here but I have a question so far I'm ripping cds into itunes and so far I have about 75 songs and that already taking 2gbs. i have a 32 gb ipod touch, so does that mean if I'm using apple lossless I'm only going get around 1200 songs in my 32gb?
 
and is it worth using apple lossless compared to its regular cd format?

 

[a_recording]

Well you'll actually get less songs then that even, because the iPod touch's software/firmware will be taking up some space.
 
I wouldn't put my entire collection in lossless on the player, just a selection of songs that you think lossless will actually make a worthwhile difference for listening on the go.
 
I think there is a difference between lossless and say AAC, in that lossless just sounds a bit more transparent, but for portable listening its hardly noticeable.
 
If you are using iTunes to rip, rip into AAC and not mp3. As I understand it, the iTunes mp3 encoder is pretty poor. Rip into lossless for archival purposes or home listening

 

[slickooz]

I'm thinking about getting maybe an ipod classic 160gb so that I will not have any problem with hard drive space. with 160 gb i can have about 6000 songs.

 

[a_recording]

I myself am waiting for a 64gb iPhone (June WWDC? )... I have about 11GB of music I'd want in lossless. The trouble with the Classic is that I hate the wheel interface. (I barely like the iPhone interface for music much better either...)

 

[slickooz]

Yeah I forgot how the wheel was. It's  been a while since i last used my video ipod. I'm thinking of bigger hard drive because I'm thinking about getting an amp so I want the best possible listening experiencing.

 

[chinesekiwi]

I'll convert the ALAC files to ~192 kbps AAC tbh. You won't hear the difference. Really. It's silly putting lossless on portables tbh.

 

[slickooz]

Using loseless will it drain the battery faster?

 

[Reima]

Quote:

Using loseless will it drain the battery faster?

Yes.
 

 

[mikemalter]

Quote:

Hi, everyone I don't know if this belongs here but I have a question so far I'm ripping cds into itunes and so far I have about 75 songs and that already taking 2gbs. i have a 32 gb ipod touch, so does that mean if I'm using apple lossless I'm only going get around 1200 songs in my 32gb?
 
and is it worth using apple lossless compared to its regular cd format?

Lossless is definitely the way to go from my perspective.  Basically, lossless is like a zip file for computer files.  That is, the song is compressed and when it plays back, it's just like listening to the CD.
 
The drawback is that more storage space is necessary.  However if you want higher quality playback, a lossless format is the best bet.
 
I don't put my entire library on my iPod, and I mix it up transferring music from time to time.

 

[OMG teh Jambands]

Quote:

Well you'll actually get less songs then that even, because the iPod touch's software/firmware will be taking up some space.

This is not truly the reason you'll get less space. A "32 Gig" drive is truly 32 billion bytes, which will show up on a computer as 29.8 GB. It's a simple question of math, not of any files taking up space.

 

[gabgar]

Quote:

Hi, everyone I don't know if this belongs here but I have a question so far I'm ripping cds into itunes and so far I have about 75 songs and that already taking 2gbs. i have a 32 gb ipod touch, so does that mean if I'm using apple lossless I'm only going get around 1200 songs in my 32gb?
 
and is it worth using apple lossless compared to its regular cd format?

Its good to have them in lossless format in your computer and listen through if you have a good sound card etc, however, it wont matter much if the playback is in the IPOD,ITOUCH etc as the DAC in those little things can only reproduce the digital files to a certain quality but not that great.
 
The good news is that many of the new car stereos and home stereo sound system are equipped with their own DAC and overwrite those of the  IPODS. This will then  produce the best sound quality and if using a lossless file, sound superior than that of 320KB mp3 files.

 

[usf09]

Quote:

Well you'll actually get less songs then that even, because the iPod touch's software/firmware will be taking up some space.
 
I wouldn't put my entire collection in lossless on the player, just a selection of songs that you think lossless will actually make a worthwhile difference for listening on the go.
 
I think there is a difference between lossless and say AAC, in that lossless just sounds a bit more transparent, but for portable listening its hardly noticeable.
 
If you are using iTunes to rip, rip into AAC and not mp3. As I understand it, the iTunes mp3 encoder is pretty poor. Rip into lossless for archival purposes or home listening

Is the Apple MP3 encoder still as bad as it used to be? I think several years ago it was just awful, but I feel like it's gotten better...I still use it for iTunes purchased songs, and I import my CDs using Apple Lossless and FLAC...obviously those sound better than MP3 or AAC, but I've never really taken the time to A/B the two lower quality versions...
 
 
Edit: Okay, so I ripped 2 AAC files into MP3 to see if there was a difference. I guess the only way to describe it is that the original AAC file had a little more body. I could sort of tell, especially with stringed instruments, that the twang of the chords seemed to be more present in the iTunes AAC version as opposed to the MP3 version created with the Apple encoder. Now with a portable source, I doubt one would be able to tell the difference, but for home listening you may as well go with the AAC format. 
 
To the OP, Apple Lossless and FLAC is definitely worth it for your home source, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's totally worth it for a DAP. I think with classical, jazz, or anything that that really benefits from soundstage and instrument separation, FLAC/Apple Lossless is worth it, but with club music or rock, I'm a little less enthusiastic...but it definitely can't hurt!

 

[EphemeralHope]

I'm actually very curious to this too...  never known this and I've been listening out of my itouch using only MP3s and am wondering if I should rerip it all to AAC to get better playback haha
 
Quote:

Is the Apple MP3 encoder still as bad as it used to be? I think several years ago it was just awful, but I feel like it's gotten better...I still use it for iTunes purchased songs, and I import my CDs using Apple Lossless and FLAC...obviously those sound better than MP3 or AAC, but I've never really taken the time to A/B the two lower quality versions...

 

[gabgar]

I have ripped a few CD's to Apple lossless using the IMAC.
 
I then compared tracks to those that I have for on my MZ-M200 and although I think that the MZ-200 sounds better, the differences are not all that discernible (used the Senn HD238 to compare)

Honestly, for convenience and  for home headphone listening, there is nothing wrong with setting up your computer and rip all of your CD collection to Apple Lossless and listen in that manner.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[TheMaestro335]

With good over the head, headphones and amp, App Lossless is night and day over normal apple formats!