[big_sound]

If my itunes library is all between 128 and 320kbps, and I convert them into apple lossless, is there any difference? I heard that lossless makes no difference if you convert it from compressed audio files. Would I be wasting my time if I tried to convert about 1200 songs this way?

 

[Real Man of Genius]

Waste of time. Converting from lossy to lossless will not add the missing data back in. If you want lossless you need to start from the CD or other lossless source. You cannot "upgrade" from one bitrate to another (well, you CAN but it wouldn't do any good).

 

[big_sound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Real Man of Genius /img/forum/go_quote.gif Waste of time. Converting from lossy to lossless will not add the missing data back in. If you want lossless you need to start from the CD or other lossless source. You cannot "upgrade" from one bitrate to another (well, you CAN but it wouldn't do any good).

Thanks

 

[krmathis]

Just a waste of time and space, really!
As the audio data lost when encoding those 128-320kbps files are lost forever. All you end up with is files multiple times the size, but sounding exactly the same.

Better re-rip directly from CD to lossless.

 

[crb]

Thats a pretty pointless feature on iTunes then... I was wondering this myself so I put a normal iTunes file, a converted lossless version and an lossless rip from a CD onto my ipod and had a listen and I could only hear a very subtle difference with the lossless rip...

This was my set up for the trial;

5th Gen -> 3MOVE - > HD570

Is there a great deal of need to have lossless format for an average set up?

 

[dallan]

Depends what you call average.

 

[crb]

OK... I'll rephrase...

When dose lossless format come into its own? At what point are you going to see the most benefits from using lossless?

 

[jewman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crb /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK... I'll rephrase... When dose lossless format come into its own? At what point are you going to see the most benefits from using lossless?

I do it for piece of mind - so that whenever I'm listening to my FLAC files (which I managed to get to play in iTunes

) I don't have to wonder if I'm missing out on something. Also, I figure, since I have the space, I might as well go for the highest bitrate. And because it's lossless, I can convert it to any lossy format without any artifacts that get created from lossy-to-lossy transcoding.

 

[PhilS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jewman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I do it for piece of mind - so that whenever I'm listening to my FLAC files (which I managed to get to play in iTunes ) I don't have to wonder if I'm missing out on something. Also, I figure, since I have the space, I might as well go for the highest bitrate. And because it's lossless, I can convert it to any lossy format without any artifacts that get created from lossy-to-lossy transcoding.

I do the same thing, for basically the same reasons.

 

[crb]

I think I'm going to need a bigger harddrive!

 

[jewman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crb /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think I'm going to need a bigger harddrive!

Here's a 1TB hd for $100

 

[dallan]

Big debate whether you can hear the difference but I can hear it. For people who cannot hear cable differences and recable differences they will probably not hear this difference in lossless either, be it ears, head or the detail of their equipment. My current system is detailed enough that I have heard all changes except one which I either chalk up to snakeoil or that I am not hearing the drop in noise level that a component is supposed to give, either way that particular one was a bad buy-it happens.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jewman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I do it for piece of mind - so that whenever I'm listening to my FLAC files (which I managed to get to play in iTunes ) I don't have to wonder if I'm missing out on something. Also, I figure, since I have the space, I might as well go for the highest bitrate. And because it's lossless, I can convert it to any lossy format without any artifacts that get created from lossy-to-lossy transcoding.

Exact same reason I use lossless. Apple Lossless and not FLAC, but that make no difference.

 

[Khemist]

Jewman, care to elaborate on how you get Itunes to play flac. I have to use Foobar to convert them to wav, then import then into Itunes, then convert to apple lossless, then delete the wavs.

If you have a more direct route, I'm all ears.

 

[krmathis]

^Khemist, I suspect 'Jewman' run iTunes on Mac OS X.
Cause with the help of Fluke iTunes can play FLAC files, on OS X that is...