[martinhalliday]

I have read of some that swear that Flac is better than Apple but I can't hear the difference on lossless. I think the difference is the bit information is more restricted in Apple lossless. Now whether you can actually hear the difference in a large FLAC file is open to debate, some saying it is beyond our auditory capacity, others (and I have to admit I am in this camp) say that they perceive a more detailed rendering.

 

[Sorensiim]

Quote:

I have read of some that swear that Flac is better than Apple but I can't hear the difference on lossless. I think the difference is the bit information is more restricted in Apple lossless. Now whether you can actually hear the difference in a large FLAC file is open to debate, some saying it is beyond our auditory capacity, others (and I have to admit I am in this camp) say that they perceive a more detailed rendering.

Lossless files should, per definition, be lossless so no audible differences at all. I'm all FLAC, partly because I'm an open source geek and partly because I don't own (And never will, but that's another story) any Apple products. 
 
No matter which format you prefer, I highly recommend dBPoweramp for ripping and converting your files. Then add Mp3Tag for all your tagging and artwork needs and you'll never need any other software for tagging or converting your music files 

 

[Girls Generation]

I tag with dbpoweramp, set it right before it rips..
 
Quote:

Lossless files should, per definition, be lossless so no audible differences at all. I'm all FLAC, partly because I'm an open source geek and partly because I don't own (And never will, but that's another story) any Apple products. 
 
No matter which format you prefer, I highly recommend dBPoweramp for ripping and converting your files. Then add Mp3Tag for all your tagging and artwork needs and you'll never need any other software for tagging or converting your music files 

 

 

[Sorensiim]

Quote:

I tag with dbpoweramp, set it right before it rips..

 
I keep all my music in two or more versions - and tag accordingly
 
1) High resolution FLAC (if bought on HDtracks or similar) - If I buy in 24/192 I resample to 24/96 as well.
2) 16/44.1 FLAC for my Clip+, my HTPC, cd burning for the car and streaming from my NAS (Gotta love no-caps fiber lines at home...)
3) 320kbps Fraunhofer Mp3 for the cell phones.
 
To the high res FLACs I add the resolution to the album tag - as in "Born To Die (24/44.1)" where as the regular version is just tagged as "Born To Die". Makes it fast an easy to keep track of the files. A/B testing different resolutions is really easy this way as well.
 
Which reminds me, I need to pick up one more 2TB drive... 

 

[Girls Generation]

My God..... 
 
Quote:

 
I keep all my music in two or more versions - and tag accordingly
 
1) High resolution FLAC (if bought on HDtracks or similar) - If I buy in 24/192 I resample to 24/96 as well.
2) 16/44.1 FLAC for my Clip+, my HTPC, cd burning for the car and streaming from my NAS (Gotta love no-caps fiber lines at home...)
3) 320kbps Fraunhofer Mp3 for the cell phones.
 
Which reminds me, I need to pick up one more 2TB drive... 

 

 

[flu_fighter]

Lol, you're almost as bad as me. Thanks to the db poweramp multi-encoder, I usually rip to Flac, ogg vorbis, musepack and AAC.
 
Quote:

 
I keep all my music in two or more versions - and tag accordingly
 
1) High resolution FLAC (if bought on HDtracks or similar) - If I buy in 24/192 I resample to 24/96 as well.
2) 16/44.1 FLAC for my Clip+, my HTPC, cd burning for the car and streaming from my NAS (Gotta love no-caps fiber lines at home...)
3) 320kbps Fraunhofer Mp3 for the cell phones.
 
To the high res FLACs I add the resolution to the album tag - as in "Born To Die (24/44.1)" where as the regular version is just tagged as "Born To Die". Makes it fast an easy to keep track of the files. A/B testing different resolutions is really easy this way as well.
 
Which reminds me, I need to pick up one more 2TB drive... 

 

 

[Jalo]

After waiting for two days (Monday and Tuesday), I am told that my unit finally got shipped out today. I am excited for tomorrow.

 

[martinhalliday]

From Sorensiim
'Lossless files should, per definition, be lossless so no audible differences at all...'
 
So are you saying that Apple lossless should have as much perceivable detail as 24/192 FLAC?

 

[Sorensiim]

Quote:

From Sorensiim
'Lossless files should, per definition, be lossless so no audible differences at all...'
 
So are you saying that Apple lossless should have as much perceivable detail as 24/192 FLAC?

At comparable resolution, yes. A 24/192 ALAC file should sound EXACTLY the same as a 24/192 FLAC file. The same goes for 16/44.1 - It's the same data in different wrappers as long as bit depth and sample rate are the same. Try compressing a huge Word document with zip and rar. Then unpack and compare the contents of your document. It will be exactly the same, despite two different ways of wrapping the original data. 
 
In this comparison, Mp3 would be the same as saving it as .txt or .rtf instead of .docx. Sure, the words are there, but all formatting, presentation etc. is down the drain.
 
Please don't get me started on open vs. closed file formats, you don't want to go there, trust me.

 

[martinhalliday]

 
Quote:

At comparable resolution, yes. A 24/192 ALAC file should sound EXACTLY the same as a 24/192 FLAC file. The same goes for 16/44.1 - It's the same data in different wrappers as long as bit depth and sample rate are the same. Try compressing a huge Word document with zip and rar. Then unpack and compare the contents of your document. It will be exactly the same, despite two different ways of wrapping the original data. 
 
In this comparison, Mp3 would be the same as saving it as .txt or .rtf instead of .docx. Sure, the words are there, but all formatting, presentation etc. is down the drain.
 
Please don't get me started on open vs. closed file formats, you don't want to go there, trust me.

I agree, but in 99.99% of cases people aren't playing a 24/192 ALAC file. Many who are looking at this thread will have an iPod of some description perhaps played through CLAS, and they may conclude that Apple lossless (invariably used by those with Apple devices) and which defaults to lower resolution, is the same as the highest resolution FLAC. It would be dangerous to give that impression.

 

[Mython]

Thanks, to those of you who answered me; I'm going to go with .flac...
 
Now, am I correct in thinking there is no way to 'embed' album art into .flac files?
 
I'm under the impression (rightly or wrongly?!) that .flac files require album art to be added as a seperate .jpeg within the album folder, so as to be read by the player as a seperate entity (in parallel with any .flac file residing within the same folder).
 
 
On my J3, since it doesn't handle album art embedded within .aac/.m4a (even though .aac/.m4a itself does support embedded artwork), I am accustomed to placing an artwork .jpeg within each album folder, this .jpeg being named 'cover.jpg'
 
Any attempts at enlightening me, not related to the J3, but with regard to .flac and the DX100, much appreciated.
 
Thanks

 

[Sorensiim]

Quote:

Thanks, to those of you who answered me; I'm going to go with .flac...
 
Now, am I correct in thinking there is no way to 'embed' album art into .flac files?
 
I'm under the impression (rightly or wrongly?!) that .flac files require album art to be added as a seperate .jpeg within the album folder, so as to be read by the player as a seperate entity (in parallel with any .flac file residing within the same folder).
 
 
On my J3, since it doesn't handle album art embedded within .aac/.m4a (even though .aac/.m4a itself does support embedded artwork), I am accustomed to placing an artwork .jpeg within each album folder, this .jpeg being named 'cover.jpg'
 
Any attempts at enlightening me, not related to the J3, but with regard to .flac and the DX100, much appreciated.
 
Thanks

Not true - All my .flac files have embedded cover art but my J3 didn't always show it correctly. Neither did my X7, which is why all my album folders have cover.jpg AND folder.jpg files as well.
 

 

[Mython]

OK, thanks for clearing that up - so what is the best approach for the DX100..?
 
I literally have a stack of CDs here, waiting to be ripped, in anticipation of my DX100 being delivered in a few days time, and I'd like to know how best to embed album art (if that's the best approach to the album art) for the purposes of playback on the DX100.
 
I'm not new to ripping, or to portable audio, I'm just new to serious .flac usage, that's all. I've previously used a mix of different codecs on my J3, and always simply used 'cover.jpg' on the J3 to handle cover art, regardless of the codec(s). On my several previous iPods, I simply embedded artwork into the .mp3 and .aac files within iTunes.
 
 
 
 

 

[Sorensiim]

Quote:

OK, thanks for clearing that up - so what is the best approach for the DX100..?

Ok, here we go - My ripping workflow
 

• Rip the CD using Sound-juicer in Linux. EAC and dBPowerAmp CD ripper will be fine as well. Make sure the tags are correct - artist, album, track names etc. I rip straight to FLAC, level 5 (default). Repeat until all your cd's are ripped. 
• Open the folder containing the freshly ripped files in Mp3Tag. Set it to sort by album, that will make everything a lot easier. 
• Now select all the files from a given album (Click on the first track, hold down "shift" and click on the last track). In the top menu, select "Tag Sources" -> "Cover Art" -> "Amazon.com". Select the right album and go - 9 times out of 10 that will land me the correct cover. If it's unable to come up with the right cover, right click on the cover art placeholder on the left (below the tags) and select "Add cover..." - Then you'll need to find a cover image yourself. Once you're found it, add it to the files and remember to click "Save" before moving on to the next album. Repeat until done.
• To make sure we cover all bases regarding artwork, go to the top menu and select "Actions" -> "Actions". This will take you to the menu where you can add or edit batch jobs. Click "New" (blank page with a star) and give it a name. "Cover extraction" would be a fine name for it. Then you can add the actual actions that needs to be performed. Click "New" and in the drop-down menu you select "Export Cover To File". In the field "Format string for image filename" you write "cover" - not "Cover.jpg", just "cover". Click OK. Then select the Action we just created and click the "Duplicate" button. Change the format string to "folder". Click OK and OK. That should take you back to the actions menu, but now with a fourth action called "Cover Extraction". Close the Actions menu, select ALL your files (CTRL + A) and open the Actions menu again. Tick the box for "Cover Extraction" and click OK. Now every single folder containing flac files will also contain cover.jpg as well as folder.jpg, extracted from the embedded artwork we added in #3.
• Copy files to device, enjoy. 
  

 

[turokrocks]

Some Bad news (for me)
I asked Ibasso to hold my shipment until further notice....

.
Customs Workers strike, here, is holding all incoming shipments since some time, and even if they came to a halt, it will take some time to process all the previously halted/pending shipments that came days ago.........................................
So maybe some one will be shipped mine...maybe...