[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

No. All CD's are 16-bit PCM files. The production house can choose what headers they like (usually AIFF or WAV) for byte ordering information ect... as I understand it.
 

this is where it gets confusing for me.  I've only ever used a Mac machine to access CD's.  When I mount any CD that I have and open the CD icon on the desktop it opens and I see AIFF icons. Then when I click get info it says the file is "AIFF-C audio".  I never seen WAV files on a CD so I'm confused.
 
 

 

[MacedonianHero]

It's not fair to use the stock tubes.... They make the biggest difference and you u need the balanced input on WA22 otherwise it's a waste 

Since when are NOS 7236 Tung-Sols "stock"?

I only have my WA2 until Friday morning, then it's off to Sophonax as he's the new owner. My source will be my buddy's Bryston BDP-1 DAC and my Cary Xciter DAC playing CDs from my Marantz CD player.

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

this is where it gets confusing for me.  I've only ever used a Mac machine to access CD's.  When I mount any CD that I have and open the CD icon on the desktop it opens and I see AIFF icons. Then when I click get info it says the file is "AIFF-C audio".  I never seen WAV files on a CD so I'm confused.
 
 

AIFF on Mac OS X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Interchange_File_Format)
 
: : : Apple Computer originally co-developed AIFF; modified it later to optimize programs on OS X (reason behind AIFF-C) : : : 
 
With the development of the Mac OS X operating system, Apple created a new type of AIFF which is, in effect, an alternative little-endian byte order format.^[3][4]

Because the AIFF architecture has no provision for alternative byte order, Apple used the existing AIFF-C compression architecture, and created a "pseudo-compressed" codec called sowt (twos spelled backwards). The only difference between a standard AIFF file and an AIFF-C/sowt file is the byte order; there is no compression involved at all.^[5]

 

 

 

 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

AIFF on Mac OS X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Interchange_File_Format)
 
 
 
With the development of the Mac OS X operating system, Apple created a new type of AIFF which is, in effect, an alternative little-endian byte order format.^[3][4]

Because the AIFF architecture has no provision for alternative byte order, Apple used the existing AIFF-C compression architecture, and created a "pseudo-compressed" codec called sowt (twos spelled backwards). The only difference between a standard AIFF file and an AIFF-C/sowt file is the byte order; there is no compression involved at all.^[5]

So when you're on an apple machine how do you know if the file is AIFF or WAV?  Because I use a lot of WAV files for composing and they show up in the Mac finder as WAV files.  am I tossing in CD's and the Mac finder is telling me that WAV files are actually AIFF files?
 

 

[grokit]

There's no compression with WAV either. With FLAC and ALAC, the music isn't compressed either (but the data is) hence the term lossless. With FLAC/ALAC, the file size is half of AIFF/WAV because all extraneous non-audio information in eliminated so they have to be decoded but not uncompressed; all the audio information is still there but it does take some data processing to listen to the files.

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

So when you're on an apple machine how do you know if the file is AIFF or WAV?  Because I use a lot of WAV files for composing and they show up in the Mac finder as WAV files.  am I tossing in CD's and the Mac finder is telling me that WAV files are actually AIFF files?
 

PM sent...
 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

So when you're on an apple machine how do you know if the file is AIFF or WAV?  Because I use a lot of WAV files for composing and they show up in the Mac finder as WAV files.  am I tossing in CD's and the Mac finder is telling me that WAV files are actually AIFF files?

So you're talking about listening to a CD out of your Mac without ripping it first? What is the point of that when there are so many better transports available for listening straight from CDs?
 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

 

So you're talking about listening to a CD out of your Mac without ripping it first? What is the point of that when there are so many better transports available for listening to CDs?
 

It's not clear what you're saying here?
 
 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

It's not clear what you're saying here?

I'm just saying that when you rip a CD using iTunes to a Mac (or PC for that matter), you are going to choose your format (AIFF, WAV, ALAC, etc.), and when you look at the ripped file on your hard drive that choice is the type of file you will be seeing in Finder/Explorer. With other ripping programs you have more format choices like FLAC but the concept remains the same.

 

[vinyllp33]

I now find it almost impossible to fully enjoy a CD played back in even a very high end transport as compared to the disc being ripped and sent via Pure Music Memory Play into the same DAC.

It is still very different than really good analog but exists on it's own plane that in several areas can be quite superior.

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

 

I'm just saying that when you rip a CD using iTunes to a Mac (or PC for that matter), you are going to choose your format (AIFF, WAV, ALAC, etc.), and when you look at the ripped file on your hard drive that choice is the type of file you will be seeing in Finder/Explorer. With other ripping programs you have more format choices like FLAC but the concept remains the same.

I know that but I'm not talking about ripping choices.  I was wondering why when I click on the CD icon on the desktop and it opens I always see AIFF files and never see WAV files. Because of that I always assumed all files on music CD's were AIFF files.
 

 

[Eee Pee]

Quote:

  I was wondering why when I click on the CD icon on the desktop and it opens I always see AIFF files and never see WAV files.
 

AAIF is Apple, WAV is Windows.
 
From Wikipeeeeedias,
 
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was co-developed^{[clarification needed]} by Apple Computer in 1988 
 
Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or more commonly known as WAV due to its filename extension),^[3][6][7][8] (also, but rarely, named, Audio for Windows^[9]) is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. 

 

[grokit]

From the LPCM wiki page that SO referred to:
 

1. LPCM is used for the lossless encoding of audio data in the Compact disc Red Book standard (informally also known as Audio CD), introduced in 1982.
2. AES3 (specified in 1985) is a particular format using LPCM.
3. On PCs, the term PCM and LPCM often refer to the format used in WAV (defined in 1991) and AIFF audio container formats (defined in 1988). LPCM data may also be stored in other formats such as AU, raw audio format (header-less file) and various multimedia container formats.

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

I now find it almost impossible to fully enjoy a CD played back in even a very high end transport as compared to the disc being ripped and sent via Pure Music Memory Play into the same DAC.

It is still very different than really good analog but exists on it's own plane that in several areas can be quite superior.

x2.

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

I know that but I'm not talking about ripping choices.  I was wondering why when I click on the CD icon on the desktop and it opens I always see AIFF files and never see WAV files. Because of that I always assumed all files on music CD's were AIFF files.
 

What is CD-A?
CD-A (Compact Disc Audio) is the format to which domestic and commercial CD players adhere. When you create a music CD on a computer it is burnt in the CD-A format. All music purchased from a music store on CD is in the CD-A format.

This is the standard Audio CD format and is used by all manufacturers of hi-fi, CD, Discman etc. Almost all CD burning software supports this format enabling anyone with a modern computer to create Audio CD's.

By default Audio CD's can hold 74 minutes of audio regardless of sound quality. All music on an audio CD is created as CD quality 44.1KHz, 16-Bit, Stereo. File size of CD-A compares to that of other uncompressed formats such as WAV and AIFF.