Audio conversion of FLAC & ALAC files

[RockStar2005]

Alchemist, 
 
Hmm ok. I dunno. I guess I'll just go into it with my fingers crossed! The phone is very well rated though and is super gorgeous (metal and glass body). (http://www.cnet.com/products/sony-xperia-z3/) I own a Sony HDTV, wireless blu-ray player, 2 wireless headphones for TV (nothing special but they're very clear and good bass too), and a Sony camera which is excellent. I really love their products but I feel like their premium headphones may not be the best choice vs Senn, AKG, etc. You seem to know WAY more about this stuff than I do, so I'm basing my opinion on yours as well as others' like you. 
 
I dunno. Some of these same ppl have the same phone I have now (HTC One M8) and say it's louder and better, but to be honest, I put mine not at max b/c max is TOO loud for me, but 1 or 2 notches under. So I guess I'll be fine with the Z3. If I HAVE to I'll look into an amp or DAC on Amazon (ughh lol). 
 

Thanks, 
 
RockStar2005

 

[PurpleAngel]

   Well I like there to be some bass there, but I don't listen to much hip-hop or dance music, so as long as there's a good strong "presence" of bass, I'm fine with that. 
If I decide to go ahead with my "proposed plan" of buying both Senn 598 and AKG K550 off Amazon and then returning the one I like 2nd-best, then I should be able to walk away saying I tried them both out and made the best decision I could have. 
Thank you for your input. My prediction is if I get both to try out, I will keep the AKGs, but we'll see. I tried out the Senn HD 650 at Best Buy last week and they felt like the ear parts were shaped a lil odd. It was a real brief trial so I wanna give Senn a second chance, esp since they weren't the 598s. I was in a hurry so may not have had them on properly too. 
RockStar2005

 
I believe the AKG K545 offer more bass, over the K550s
 
Here is a good deal on used HD558s
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sennheiser-HD-558-Headband-Headphones-Black-/161445819785?pt=US_Headphones&hash=item2596ebb589

 

[RockStar2005]

Thanks Angel! 
 
I was looking to buy new, but I still appreciate the link to that deal. 
 
Yeah I just read this comparison review of the 545 vs 550 also from Head-Fi (http://www.head-fi.org/t/688329/akg-k545-review-k550-s-little-brother-isn-t-so-little). The ONLY thing I didn't like was that it said the 550s were slightly more comfortable than the 545s. Comfort is EXTREMELY important to me as I'm not a big fan of wearing anything that constricts (i.e., watches, hats, headphones lol), so going the headphone route in order to achieve maximum sound quality is something new to me. 
 
Having said that, since it's only slightly different comfort, I may still get both and try them out. It's dawned on me since last night that the Sennheiser headphones all seem to be open-backed, which means sound will leak out, which I DON'T like. The AKG ones however are closed-back. So perhaps I'll get the 545 & 550 and then decide which one I like the most. 
 
What you guys think? 
 
RockStar2005

 

[Music Alchemist]

It's dawned on me since last night that the Sennheiser headphones all seem to be open-backed, which means sound will leak out, which I DON'T like. The AKG ones however are closed-back. So perhaps I'll get the 545 & 550 and then decide which one I like the most.

 
Open-back headphones usually have better sound quality than closed-back ones. If you are going to be using them in public or near others who don't want to hear your music, then you would need closed-back. Otherwise, it's generally a better idea to go for open!

 

[KlarkKentThe3rd]

Not sure if anyone will find this useful at this point, but I can testify that iTunes does not "fully decode" the audio that I play through it. WAV sounds perfect, but ALAC does not.
 
As a matter of fact, when playing multiple copies of the same song in different formats in Audacity, Only WAV and FLAC-0 sound perfect and identical, while AIFF sounds cold with ALAC pretty much in the same boat.
 
But when you (re)convert ANY lossless file into WAV or FLAC-0, they will sound perfect (again). Lossless means no data loss, but not all formats sound perfect.
 
In other words, the codecs in ALAC and FLAC(levels 1 through 8 but not 0) do something to the way sound is decoded, affecting the end result in a negative way. Which is why I wish Apple would do something good for once, get over their stubborness and make iTunes FLAC-compatible, so I could just save all my music to FLAC-0.

 

[RockStar2005]

Alchemist, 
 
lol more "good" news. 
 
I dunno............ I want better sound quality, but I don't wanna be "that guy" either. But maybe I have to be though?! lol
 
So maybe I'll take a look at the Sennheiser HD 598 after all and either the AKG K545 and/or K550. You said "usually" so I'm hoping the AKG will win, but we'll see. lol
 
You have any opinion on AKG K550 vs K545? 

Thanks, 
 
RockStar2005

 

[RockStar2005]

Kent, 
 
Are you kidding me? I used dbPoweramp to convert my FLACs to ALACs........ so is it really noticeable (the difference)??
 
If it's lossless then it should also be perfect. I just don't get that. 
 
So are these FLAC tracks off this site, www.hdtracks.com, FLAC-0 or what? lol Please let me know. 
 
 
Thank You, 
 
RockStar2005

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Not sure if anyone will find this useful at this point, but I can testify that iTunes does not "fully decode" the audio that I play through it. WAV sounds perfect, but ALAC does not.
 
As a matter of fact, when playing multiple copies of the same song in different formats in Audacity, Only WAV and FLAC-0 sound perfect and identical, while AIFF sounds cold with ALAC pretty much in the same boat.
 
But when you (re)convert ANY lossless file into WAV or FLAC-0, they will sound perfect (again). Lossless means no data loss, but not all formats sound perfect.
 
In other words, the codecs in ALAC and FLAC(levels 1 through 8 but not 0) do something to the way sound is decoded, affecting the end result in a negative way. Which is why I wish Apple would do something good for once, get over their stubborness and make iTunes FLAC-compatible, so I could just save all my music to FLAC-0.

 
I was actually going to mention before that some people (including famous studio engineers) reported hearing differences between lossless formats, especially uncompressed vs compressed lossless. I even have a text file full of relevant quotes from across the Internet. Assuming this is not merely people's imagination, it must have something to do with how the software and hardware process the data. This phenomenon may only manifest itself on certain systems.
 
Maybe someday, I'll get to the bottom of this.
 
You can always use another software program, like foobar2000, JRiver Media Center, and/or JPLAY.
 

I dunno............ I want better sound quality, but I don't wanna be "that guy" either. But maybe I have to be though?! lol  
So maybe I'll take a look at the Sennheiser HD 598 after all and either the AKG K545 and/or K550. You said "usually" so I'm hoping the AKG will win, but we'll see. lol
 
You have any opinion on AKG K550 vs K545? 

It's fine. Experimentation is the very spirit of music alchemy!

 
I don't recall the details, but I think I heard more positive things about the K545.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Kent, 
 
Are you kidding me? I used dbPoweramp to convert my FLACs to ALACs........ so is it really noticeable (the difference)??
 
If it's lossless then it should also be perfect. I just don't get that. 
 
So are these FLAC tracks off this site, www.hdtracks.com, FLAC-0 or what? lol Please let me know. 

 
As long as it's lossless, you can convert it to any other lossless format with no loss in data, so don't worry about it. What he means is that (at least under certain circumstances) the lossless files are decoded in different ways. Compressed lossless (FLAC, ALAC) files are decoded in real-time, and sometimes written to the computer's memory, while uncompressed (WAV, AIFF) files don't need to be decoded in such a manner, since there isn't any compression to be "decompressed." The main difference between WAV and AIFF is that the bytes are reversed. Interestingly, AIFF was developed in the '80s by Apple, while WAV was developed in the '90s by Microsoft and IBM.

 

[RockStar2005]

Alchemist, 
 
Well I still think that's total BS that Apple makes you have to convert FLAC to ALAC to keep it lossless, but it doesn't sound as good? Kent is right, they need to get their act together and allow FLAC. PowerAmp plays FLAC, and it's listed on their site that their app can play ALAC too. Well, I tried that...... sounded like the track was in slow motion and backwards. lol So I remain with FLAC then. 
 
So it's just iTunes or do all players screw up ALAC playback? 
 
I dunno Alchemist, he said ALAC didn't sound as good as FLAC though (at least on iTunes), so how is that not something to worry about? lol Even if they are both lossless. 
 
Allright thanks.... I'll decide soon and go from there. I dunno if I can wait 'til Black Friday anymore. lol
 
RockStar2005

 

[Music Alchemist]

Well I still think that's total BS that Apple makes you have to convert FLAC to ALAC to keep it lossless, but it doesn't sound as good? Kent is right, they need to get their act together and allow FLAC. PowerAmp plays FLAC, and it's listed on their site that their app can play ALAC too. Well, I tried that...... sounded like the track was in slow motion and backwards. lol So I remain with FLAC then.   
So it's just iTunes or do all players screw up ALAC playback? 
 
I dunno Alchemist, he said ALAC didn't sound as good as FLAC though (at least on iTunes), so how is that not something to worry about? lol Even if they are both lossless. 

 
All lossless formats "should" sound identical during playback, but for whatever reason, not everyone seems to experience this. On my computer, all of them sound the same on each music player, whether it be iTunes, foobar2000, JRiver, or JPLAY. If iTunes is giving you problems, just use another program.
 
You can also convert to WAV or AIFF in order to play lossless files with iTunes.
 
"PowerAmp" Are you referring to dBpoweramp? They no longer offer an audio player in their software package. If ALAC sounded slow motion and backwards, there is probably a problem with your software, not the file.

 

[KlarkKentThe3rd]

   
I was actually going to mention before that some people (including famous studio engineers) reported hearing differences between lossless formats, especially uncompressed vs compressed lossless. I even have a text file full of relevant quotes from across the Internet. Assuming this is not merely people's imagination, it must have something to do with how the software and hardware process the data. This phenomenon may only manifest itself on certain systems.
 
Maybe someday, I'll get to the bottom of this.
 
You can always use another software program, like foobar2000, JRiver Media Center, and/or JPLAY.
 
It's fine. Experimentation is the very spirit of music alchemy!

 
I don't recall the details, but I think I heard more positive things about the K545.

Finally! More people are starting to see the truth, and that makes me happy. I would get Foobar2000 in a flash, if I wasn't stuck in the world of Apple™. I love to use the web to its full potential, and go everywhere, and use torrents and stuff, without my computer crashing every month because of viruses. I would love to switch to Foobar from iTunes and never look back, but Windows just cannot provide a good web browsing experience.
 
Darn you, Apple!
 
P.S. Like I mentioned, any lossless file can be converted to WAV and it will sound perfect.

 

[RockStar2005]

Alchemist, 
 
I dunno. I gave my friend some ALAC files as a gift for iTunes listening. I hope he doesn't experience any BS. lol
 
Yeah but WAV and AIFF are not compressed so take up even more room. Even compressed formats like FLAC and ALAC are not tiny by any means. 
 
I have the dbPoweramp converter on my pc which is awesome, and on my phone my current player is PowerAmp. Well maybe it's the software? I dunno. 2 weeks from today I'll have the Z3 finally and will be using its stock Walkman app, which I've heard a few ppl on xda say sounds BETTER than PowerAmp when the Walkman's DSEE HX option (mp3 upscaler) is enabled (in addition to ClearAudio+, and I think bass booster?)!! Can't wait!!!
 
RockStar2005

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Finally! More people are starting to see the truth, and that makes me happy. I would get Foobar2000 in a flash, if I wasn't stuck in the world of Apple™. I love to use the web to its full potential, and go everywhere, and use torrents and stuff, without my computer crashing every month because of viruses. I would love to switch to Foobar from iTunes and never look back, but Windows just cannot provide a good web browsing experience.
 
Darn you, Apple!
 
P.S. Like I mentioned, any lossless file can be converted to WAV and it will sound perfect.

 
I wouldn't be so easily convinced that it's the truth. Prove it scientifically and then you're getting somewhere.
 
Oh, you mean you have an Apple computer and don't want to use Windows? Apple computers are alien to me. I'm perfectly satisfied with Windows.
 
You could always install Windows on your Apple while still being able to use OS X. (Just look up how to do it.)
 
What I want to do, though, is eventually just use a dedicated music server instead of a normal computer.
 

  Alchemist, 
 
I dunno. I gave my friend some ALAC files as a gift for iTunes listening. I hope he doesn't experience any BS. lol
 
Yeah but WAV and AIFF are not compressed so take up even more room. Even compressed formats like FLAC and ALAC are not tiny by any means. 
 
I have the dbPoweramp converter on my pc which is awesome, and on my phone my current player is PowerAmp. Well maybe it's the software? I dunno. 2 weeks from today I'll have the Z3 finally and will be using its stock Walkman app, which I've heard a few ppl on xda say sounds BETTER than PowerAmp when the Walkman's DSEE HX option (mp3 upscaler) is enabled (in addition to ClearAudio+, and I think bass booster?)!! Can't wait!!!
 
RockStar2005

 
If you go to the sound science sub-forum, practically everyone there will tell you that 256 kbps AAC and all lossless formats sound identical. They'll even insist that you conduct proper tests, which I won't go into here.
 
I only care about getting the best sound quality possible. That means a huge and expensive system is the only option for me!

 

[RockStar2005]

Alchemist, 
 
As long as there's any doubt, even from you lol, I will stick with lossless. You even said for storage purposes you would use lossless. Why not AACs? lol 
 
Ok so ALAC will sound fine then on iTunes. I will just pretend I didn't see Kent's post on that then. lol 

 
Thanks, 
 
RockStar2005