Deciding on Better Music Storage

Oct 19, 2018 at 7:16 PM Post #16 of 32
No.

The Pioneer DAP plays files stored on its microSD cards. Those cards are an ALAC backup of my home iTunes library. But I can remotely control the Pioneer (play, pause, next, previous, volume, etc.) from my phone via an app, allowing me to keep the DAP in my pocket.

My phone also has its own copy of (most of) the library, but in AAC 256. These files aren't typically played, unless I forget my DAP, or I want to stream my music. (My phone supports AAC over Bluetooth, whereas the DAP is limited to AptX HD, making my phone the superior BT source.)

Also, adding to my previous question: can iTunes play dsf files?
 
Oct 19, 2018 at 7:18 PM Post #17 of 32
Got it.

Hey, question on converting my FLAC. I think I want to do the same as you, and convert to ALAC, and the to AAC 256 for my phone and a copy of ALAC to my micro SD card for a DAP I'll use (not decided if I'm keeping the Fiio X7 Mark II I have now or not).

Anyways, I usually use fre:ac app for music file conversions. So I think if I configure the encoder in fre:ac to ALAC, and then convert all the FLAC to ALAC it should do that. Then import them to iTunes, but then what do I need to do to get them onto my iPhone X in AAC 256 format?
The easiest way that I've found is to set my iPhone sync preferences (in iTunes) to automatically convert higher bitrate files to 256kbs AAC. That's what I'm using.

RE: DSF & iTunes, I don't know. Sorry.
 
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Oct 19, 2018 at 7:42 PM Post #18 of 32
I store my media library on a 4TB 4x 1TB SSD RAID0 connected directly to my laptop via Thunderbolt 3 (10 Gb/s real world transfer speeds). Any changes to that drive are added to a 5TB HDD daily. I play directly from the RAID0, via iTunes on my MBP, through a pair of HomePods, when I'm at home. Lossless files are stored as ALAC. Lossy files are stored as obtained; if created locally, AAC 256.

Until now, I've been manually creating AAC versions for my iPhone SE, to avoid transcoding any of the mp3 files I still have. For sorting ease, I prepended all such album names with "AAC ". I learned from a Sound Science thread yesterday that iOS uses AAC for all system sound, so I'm not actually avoiding the transcoding I thought I was avoiding. Therefore, I'm planning to delete the AAC version of those albums, and to change my sync setting to automatically transcode higher bitrate file to AAC 256 to simplify the process. Key takeaway: There's no benefit to paying for the extra storage required to keep higher (than AAC 256) bitrate files on my iPhone, especially considering iPhone storage is among the most expensive NAND memory sold to consumers.

I also have a Cayin N3 w/ 256GB microSD card dedicated to my live Grateful Dead library, mostly lossless. Though still a work in progress, I've spent far too many hours curating the collection to start again from scratch, so it gets an extra backup, which I store in a DAP. (It's worth noting that even though most of my Grateful Dead discs are HDCD, I only ever extract the 16-bit files before storing the physical media.)

I have a Pioneer XDP-02U inbound. It supports 2x (at least) 400 GB cards, so it should hold most/all of my music in lossless format (where available), and will serve as a backup. I'll also use it as my primary source/player at work, not because of dissatisfaction with my MBP, but because if I'm going to get tangled with the cord when I, for example, roll back from my desk, I rather it be the DAP, not the MBP, that is pulled from the desk. Since I'll be able to control the DAP from an app on my phone, providing the same convenience as wireless playback from my phone, it will probably also be my primary mobile music player. For actual wireless (BT/Airplay), my phone and my laptop will remain best options.

Except for my main library, I only keep lossless files on devices if those devices are serving secondary duty as backup storage. Except for archival purposes, there's really no benefit to having music files with bitrates exceeding 256 AAC (or 320 MP3). 256 AAC is audibly transparent to human listeners, indistinguishable from lossless during playback. Even if you have the one in a million pair of golden ears to resolve the difference, you would have to be listening so carefully and critically to not miss the artifacts (that no one else can hear anyway) that it would be exhausting and not enjoyable.

@joefig44 What is the appeal of FLAC for you? Are you using hardware that doesn't play nice with ALAC? My own experience is that ALAC is the much more convenient equivalent to FLAC on macOS/iOS. Or are you obtaining your music as FLAC, and the song files stay in that format until they get moved to one device or another?

@Jaywalk3r If I'm understanding your process, you're creating a separate AAC 256 file for your iPhone. Itunes has a feature to down convert ALAC to AAC256 on the fly, but I haven't tried this, and I'm wondering if it's just too slow? Have you tried this? I've got about 8000 tracks in my library of ALAC files. Not massive, but certainly can't put much on my iPhone. I'm on the edge of creating a separate library just for my iPhone and using DBPoweramp to create the converted files.... but then I've got two libraries to maintain. Not sure I wan't to have the dual naming scheme that you used, but that certainly would work.
 
Oct 19, 2018 at 8:33 PM Post #19 of 32
@Jaywalk3r If I'm understanding your process, you're creating a separate AAC 256 file for your iPhone. Itunes has a feature to down convert ALAC to AAC256 on the fly, but I haven't tried this, and I'm wondering if it's just too slow? Have you tried this? I've got about 8000 tracks in my library of ALAC files. Not massive, but certainly can't put much on my iPhone. I'm on the edge of creating a separate library just for my iPhone and using DBPoweramp to create the converted files.... but then I've got two libraries to maintain. Not sure I wan't to have the dual naming scheme that you used, but that certainly would work.
I just started using the auto-convert during sync feature. Previously I was creating an AAC copy and prepending "AAC " to the album name to make them easy to both find or avoid, as appropriate. I was trying to avoid transcoding the few MP3 files, so I made AAC copies of my lossless stuff. Then I learned that iOS is already transcoding from MP3 to AAC between the file and the headphone jack, so the only thing I was avoiding was convenience (and some free SSD space). I sync in the background. I have no recollection how long it took to transcode and transfer my mostly lossless iPhone playlist songs, but they take up 173GB in iTunes, but only 69.5 GB on the phone.
 
Oct 19, 2018 at 8:56 PM Post #20 of 32
I just started using the auto-convert during sync feature. Previously I was creating an AAC copy and prepending "AAC " to the album name to make them easy to both find or avoid, as appropriate. I was trying to avoid transcoding the few MP3 files, so I made AAC copies of my lossless stuff. Then I learned that iOS is already transcoding from MP3 to AAC between the file and the headphone jack, so the only thing I was avoiding was convenience (and some free SSD space). I sync in the background. I have no recollection how long it took to transcode and transfer my mostly lossless iPhone playlist songs, but they take up 173GB in iTunes, but only 69.5 GB on the phone.

OK. Cool. I'm going to give that a try. My iPhone is 32Gb so I'll have to be selective, and yet, I'll probably be able to get most of my active library downloaded. I really didn't want two libraries or dual records as I spent three weeks consolidating, cleaning and re-ripping stuff :-)
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 11:32 AM Post #21 of 32
I just started using the auto-convert during sync feature. Previously I was creating an AAC copy and prepending "AAC " to the album name to make them easy to both find or avoid, as appropriate. I was trying to avoid transcoding the few MP3 files, so I made AAC copies of my lossless stuff. Then I learned that iOS is already transcoding from MP3 to AAC between the file and the headphone jack, so the only thing I was avoiding was convenience (and some free SSD space). I sync in the background. I have no recollection how long it took to transcode and transfer my mostly lossless iPhone playlist songs, but they take up 173GB in iTunes, but only 69.5 GB on the phone.

I had recently converted a good portion of my FLAC collection to 320kbps mp3 which I then had planned to import to iTunes and sync to my iPhone X.

Now that I've heard AAC 256 is better, I'm wondering if I should continue with my original plan or embark on a likely lengthy activity of converting all of my FLACs to ALACs, and then import to iTunes and then allow iTunes to sync with my iPhone X which should create the AAC 256 versions?

If it's the more lengthy conversion activity that is best, would the easiest way to go about it be to use Fluke add-on to iTunes, then import all FLACs? Wouldn't this only create the ALAC in the iTunes media folder and not actually convert the FLAC to a new m4a file?
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 2:12 PM Post #22 of 32
Sorry guys haven't read the replies but I can't see why an answer should be more complicated than this. Convert your favorite songs of all time to mp3 and compare the lossless version to mp3 while listening to your headphones, then decide on what your setup will be.
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 3:03 PM Post #23 of 32
I had recently converted a good portion of my FLAC collection to 320kbps mp3 which I then had planned to import to iTunes and sync to my iPhone X.

Now that I've heard AAC 256 is better, I'm wondering if I should continue with my original plan or embark on a likely lengthy activity of converting all of my FLACs to ALACs, and then import to iTunes and then allow iTunes to sync with my iPhone X which should create the AAC 256 versions?

If it's the more lengthy conversion activity that is best, would the easiest way to go about it be to use Fluke add-on to iTunes, then import all FLACs? Wouldn't this only create the ALAC in the iTunes media folder and not actually convert the FLAC to a new m4a file?

I standardized on ALAC instead of FLAC for iTunes compatibility. If there's an extension that allows FLAC to be recognized by iTunes, and iTunes can auto-convert those FLAC files to AAC for syncing your iPhone, then there's no significant advantage to using ALAC over FLAC. You can use your FLAC files as I'm using my ALAC files.

That being said, I use XLD to convert FLAC to ALAC on MacOS. It has extensive options, including what to do with input and output files on completion. XLD is a free utility I've been using for several years. There may be better options at this point, but I've no complaints.
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 3:10 PM Post #24 of 32
Sorry guys haven't read the replies but I can't see why an answer should be more complicated than this. Convert your favorite songs of all time to mp3 and compare the lossless version to mp3 while listening to your headphones, then decide on what your setup will be.

One good reason is that your reply doesn't answer the question posed. Listening to music and storing music files are not the same thing. There are good reasons to store music in a better quality format than that with which you listen.
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 4:19 PM Post #26 of 32
What are you talking about?? OP asked if he should convert more of his FLAC's to a lossless format and store them on his phone.
I think you'll find, if you read the thread (you acknowledged you hadn't), that the OP's original and follow-up questions were much more nuanced than that.
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 4:37 PM Post #27 of 32
I think you'll find, if you read the thread (you acknowledged you hadn't), that the OP's original and follow-up questions were much more nuanced than that.
From what I see OP now wants lossy files on his phone and also have a DAP to store lossless files when he can't tell a very noticeable difference between the lossy and lossless files in his testing. Why would OP need a DAP when he'll be listening to his Audeze with his NFB which isn't portable?
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 4:39 PM Post #28 of 32
From what I see OP now wants lossy files on his phone and also have a DAP to store lossless files when he can't tell a very noticeable difference between the lossy and lossless files in his testing. Why would OP need a DAP when he'll be listening to his Audeze with his NFB which isn't portable?
Read the thread to find out.
 
Oct 20, 2018 at 8:01 PM Post #29 of 32
From what I see OP now wants lossy files on his phone and also have a DAP to store lossless files when he can't tell a very noticeable difference between the lossy and lossless files in his testing. Why would OP need a DAP when he'll be listening to his Audeze with his NFB which isn't portable?

Because I have Noble Encore CIEMs that I also want to enjoy when out and about. And, moving around the house with the Audeze is easier with a mobile - otherwise my phone wouldn't sound nearly as good during those moments.
 

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