[bananaman22]

hey guys i'm not sure if this is in the right section so feel free to move it...
 
anyways i'm planning on getting a new non apple mp3 player and i'm converting all of my itunes songs to mp3's. i'm just wondering if they'll sound alot different than they did in apples format. i'm by no means an audiophile, just a casual listener so do you think ill notice a big difference? thanks.

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

hey guys i'm not sure if this is in the right section so feel free to move it...
 
anyways i'm planning on getting a new non apple mp3 player and i'm converting all of my itunes songs to mp3's. i'm just wondering if they'll sound alot different than they did in apples format. i'm by no means an audiophile, just a casual listener so do you think ill notice a big difference? thanks.

If you're going from lossy AAC to lossy MP3, you're going to lose even more data than you usually would and the file will end up double lossy. So it's possible you'll hear distortion. That's why everyone here suggests only buying lossless and not from lossy stores like Amazon and iTunes.
 
If you have lossless copies, then an AAC file and MP3 file made from them are going to sound too similar to worry about, and you probably wouldn't hear a difference.

 

[bananaman22]

ok so are there any other good lossless ways to purchase music similar to itunes? like i can buy a gift card and download the ones i want?

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

ok so are there any other good lossless ways to purchase music similar to itunes? like i can buy a gift card and download the ones i want?

You can buy CDs. If you shop around in the Amazon marketplace, keep your eye open for deals here, buy used, and/or visit garage sales, it ends up being much cheaper than digital downloads, you can rip in lossless, you have a physical copy as backup, and get the warm tingly feeling of owning a tangible music collection.
 
It may be frowned upon by record companies, but since you already own the music you could rent the CD versions from a library for lossless copies.
 
Not many companies have wised up to digital lossless downloads. Not many with a wide selection anyway.
 
In the meantime, though, you can always Rockbox your player if it supports it. Great parametric EQ and support for AAC.

 

[Arjisme]

Quote:

ok so are there any other good lossless ways to purchase music similar to itunes? like i can buy a gift card and download the ones i want?

What non-Apple mp3 player are you considering?  Depending on what you buy, you could install Rockbox to replace the original firmware.  Then you could play your AAC files on your new device.
 
Edit:  guess I should have read Head Injury's reply to the end!