[Dulalala]

Yeah I just tried it. Still can't figure it out at all. No clue what I'm supposed to be looking for anyways. Maybe it's the type of music I'm listening to, who knows. It doesn't really bother me anyways. Even if I could tell, I can't afford the space FLAC takes up nor can I find 80% of my music in FLAC anyways. I honestly find a bigger difference between amps than FLAC and AAC/MP3, since I can, well, hear it at the very least 

 but everyone's ears are different, no worries about it.

 

[PL4Y3R 0N3]

  Yeah I just tried it. Still can't figure it out at all. No clue what I'm supposed to be looking for anyways. Maybe it's the type of music I'm listening to, who knows. It doesn't really bother me anyways. Even if I could tell, I can't afford the space FLAC takes up nor can I find 80% of my music in FLAC anyways. I honestly find a bigger difference between amps than FLAC and AAC/MP3, since I can, well, hear it at the very least 

 but everyone's ears are different, no worries about it.

So you couldn't tell the difference with the HD800s? Wonder how grand your setup has to be for there to be that absolutely massive difference that I've seen other members talk about? Let's just say I am highly skeptical at the moment. I'm not sure where this "massive difference" is coming from, but I have yet to be able to hear it. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I'm just saying that the differences at this point are too little for me to be worried about with my current setup. I will still rip all of my CDs i get into ALAC, but I think I'm gonna stick to iTunes for the time being.
Thanks to everyone for the help! I have had my question answered, and now I will move on to expanding my music library.

 

[coachenzo]

Is there a way to have iTunes default to ALAC when downloading?

 

[PL4Y3R 0N3]

Is there a way to have iTunes default to ALAC when downloading?

No. iTunes sells thair music in AAC format. To make it ALAC you have to rip a CD using iTunes.

 

[ozyx]

For me, convenience and comfort far outweigh any minuscule (at most) differences in sound quality.
 
I've done the abx test online with my equipment and when I couldn't tell the difference after 2 minutes it was clear to me that even if there was a tiny difference, it wasn't one that would worth any sacrifice in convenience.
 
If there was no cost in terms of money and convenience you would have done it anyway. But if there is such cost, then there is no point to lose something real, just so you will gain something in theory. That would be a net loss for you. Unless of course it bothers you that you are not on the lossless bandwagon, in which case you should pay the cost, not for the sound quality, but just to make yourself feel better.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

I have all kinds of audio nervosa about upgrading my AAC, MP3 files to FLAC or ALAC. Meh, a summer project when it's too hot outside...

 

[stonesfan129]

I had the same experience. The iTunes files (256kbps AAC) are good enough for me. If there is a difference, I do not hear it. My equipment is a FiiO M6 with Sennheiser HD598SE headphones. I already own my favorites on CD and ripped them to FLAC.

 

[Whazzzup]

Imo, one has to have a quality server running roon core and quality ripper that does acoustic fingerprint analysis, to be in a position to hear the underwhelminng performance of iTunes through a noisy computer. But. Ignorance is bliss, I tunes on its own sounds fine. 90% of my collection is iTunes converted to flac playing roon core upsampled to dsd. Course if I had a CD ripped even better sq on my server. But that’s just options, at the very least get roon core on your computer instead of iTunes for another notch up.