[Milk and Coffee]

Geruvah, I suggest using MAX on MacOS. It's like EAC for Windows and no Bootcamp is necessary

 

[Geruvah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mintz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you think you could notice a difference between a lossless rip and a 320 AAC rip of a song with your Super Fi 5's? I did not think the difference would be to noticeable...

Not at all. Just tested it myself and found 3 out of 5 times I'd guess correctly. I used a lossless version and a 320 AAC version of Hotel California in the Eagles's Hell Freezes Over album.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milk and Coffee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Geruvah, I suggest using MAX on MacOS. It's like EAC for Windows and no Bootcamp is necessary

I just learned about this from Audiogon. Trying it, but I can't have it to automatically tag the cd tracks.

 

[ozz]

Apple Lossless in I-Tunes.on a MacBook Pro.

 

[cs00brp]

itunes, macbook.

Slightly off topic but I think it fits with this thread. Most of my files are 192 and thinking about getting a new dac + amp if I got a high end set up $600+ is it worth it. Would it just show up my mp3? I have 100GB+ so re-encoding isn't an option. Do value amps make mp3's sound better? What other peoples on thoughts.



Bren

 

[kbug]

I use EAC to rip my CDs to FLACs. I convert them to MP4 260kbps VBR if I want to load them to my Zune.

 

[Tryptonique]

m4a offers better compression than mp3 and better sound quality than mp3s from what I have read.

So..if you aren't going to go lossless, I would go with 320 m4a.

If you are going to go lossless, I see no real reason to go with uncompressed lossless. The space that takes up is super huge and if there is a really small percentage of people who can tell the difference between 320mp3 or 320m4a and lossless, I would posit it would have to be an even *smaller* group of people who could tell the audible differences between uncompressed/compressed lossless...especially since the audio data is completely identical (hence - lossless). The only audio issues would come from the decoding or the act of uncompression the audio from the compressed file. I'm betting those are fairly negligible with most quality computers nowadays (read = ones that were made in the last 3-5 years).

 

[reemixx]

I find 320kbps AAC to be a good compromise between SQ and file size. What I notice most in the differences between lossy and lossless is the soundstage becoming a little narrower and the music to not have as much air or space. At 320, those differences become minimal to non-existant for me with my current gear. Obviously, it all depends on ones' ears and equipment.

That said, I rip to ALAC, just because I can't be bothered managing separate libraries of lossy and lossless for desktop and portable listening

Easy way to find out is to test it for yourself. If you can't hear any differences, then there's nothing to worry about