iTunes and Encoding...HELP!!
Sep 20, 2007 at 11:45 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 19

Fortunate Sean

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Hi guys n gals. Need a lil' help. I recently purchased the SE530's and am wanting to get better performance out of them.

Would someone mind telling me how to set up iTunes to rip my cd's to produce the best qualitly sound for use with an 8gig iPod. Was thinking 192k for space issues.

The music I have ripped so far is in 128k and the import was set at AAC. Which until coming here, I had not idea what the hell all that meant. LOL

Should i change the encoder to MP3 for the best quality at 192k for an iPod... Please advise.

Kthx bye
eggosmile.gif
 
Sep 20, 2007 at 11:49 PM Post #2 of 19
the higher the better,id recommend 256vbr as minimum, i have an 80gb ipod and settle for lossless only, if you dont have a massive collection id advise 320kb really so you get the most out of the earphones
 
Sep 21, 2007 at 12:47 AM Post #6 of 19
You may also want to consider ripping your CD's with another program. Like many in this forum, I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) with the Lame encoder. It works well and can help clean up CD's with a lot of scratches.

I also use MP3 Gain at 89 db to lower the default volume of the tracks. I do this because the ipod equalizer always boosts the volume of the affected frequencies. Lowering the gain gives the ipod amp a little headroom to boost frequencies before reaching saturation. I find that this makes a noticeable improvement to the sound if you are using the ipod equalizer.
 
Sep 21, 2007 at 12:47 AM Post #7 of 19
I'd suggest you encode a few tracks at 192, 224, 256 and 320 and see if you can notice the differences between each and go with one higher up. For example if you can't tell the difference between 224, 256, and 320 then go with 256. Definitely want to go with VBR to cut down on the file sizes...
 
Sep 21, 2007 at 12:50 AM Post #8 of 19
All of this is chinese to me. LOL

Can someone post some step by step instructions? (if i rip using another program how do i get the tunes into iTunes?)

Also... Can I overwrite songs that I have ripd to a better quality or do i need to delete them all and start over?
 
Sep 21, 2007 at 1:20 AM Post #9 of 19
encoding in iTunes is quite simple once you know what to do

1: In iTunes, click on "edit" on the top right and click on "preferences".
2: Now in the preferences screen, go to the "advanced" tab and then go to "importing".
3: You can select the format you want to import your cds from the "import using:" selector. You have your lossy formats like AAC, mp3 and lossless formats such as Apple lossless and good ol' wav. For the maximum performance with no regard for file size, wav or Apple lossless are the way to go.
4: you can select the quality of the files by going to the "setting" selector. Generally, you want to aim for the highest possible bitrate. For even more choices, select custom. From here, you can select more bit rates. You can also select variable bit rate (VBR). That means that the bit rate will change depending on how much audio there is.

I hope that helps a bit. And about the se530s....sorry about your wallet.
 
Sep 21, 2007 at 1:58 AM Post #11 of 19
-alt -present -standard is the best in terms of quality + size. I'm sure a few head-fi members will insist that you need to encode them as -alt -preset -extreme but it really is overkill and a 30% increase in size.

Also, Google is your friend.

Lastly, this is a guide to giving you -aps/v2/vbr MP3s.
http://www.fryth.com/eacfaq/
 
Sep 21, 2007 at 3:57 AM Post #12 of 19
Since upgrading to some decent audio equipment I recently started to wonder: maybe the lossy compression of my music is starting to become the bottleneck for sound quality? Most of my stuff is 128kbps AAC.

So I used ABC/HR in ABX mode, and conducted a double-blind test on myself. 128 Kbps AAC produced using iTunes and converted to WAV using FAAD2, and the raw WAV file ripped using ExactAudioCopy.

I tried 4 different tracks with 8 trials each time. I correctly identified the sample (as either compressed or uncompressed) just over half of the time. That wasn't enough to convince myself that I was doing it consistently. The Hydrogenaudio Wiki has more on ABX testing.

And more importantly it *felt* like I was guessing. Very quickly I gave up trying to identify specific artifacts in the music - instead trying to get an overall impression and basing my answer on that.

So the bottom line is that for me, using my equipment, I found it difficult to distinguish between 128kbps AAC and uncompressed audio. Other people may can no doubt do better that me (I have some measured mild hearing loss) but I think it is a highly individual thing.

My advice is: if you are especially concerned that you'll be able to hear artifacts in your current music collection, then you should double-blind test yourself to see. I wouldn't go off and re-rip your collection at a higher bitrate until you're convinced that you will hear a difference.

And at the risk of offending other people here, I wouldn't listen to those who indulge in "I can hear artifacts at 256+kpbs" types of one-upmanship. A double-blind test is prettymuch the only way to verify such claims and you can bet that these people seldom if ever test themselves in this way.
 
Oct 13, 2007 at 1:00 AM Post #13 of 19
Would I lose some quality if I burn my iTunes purchased music (some encoded at 256kbps) onto a CD at 1x speed? Because that's what I always do. My PC sound card kinda sucks compared to my headphone rig so ripping CDs onto iTunes isn't good for me. I've always wondered about this.
 
Oct 13, 2007 at 1:07 AM Post #14 of 19
Quote:

Originally Posted by Xoen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Would I lose some quality if I burn my iTunes purchased music (some encoded at 256kbps) onto a CD at 1x speed? Because that's what I always do. My PC sound card kinda sucks compared to my headphone rig so ripping CDs onto iTunes isn't good for me. I've always wondered about this.


No, you wont loose any sound quality that way.
You simply decode the tracks and burn them to a CD, just as iTunes decode the AAC tracks when you play them.
 
Oct 13, 2007 at 1:22 AM Post #15 of 19
Oh ok! That's what I've been doing all along then.
smily_headphones1.gif
I just didn't know if it was right, so I guess it is.
 

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