iPod file options

Best quality is not your only concern. Uncompressed is of course the best quality and totally doable within itunes.

But if you have uncompressed on the iPod it will deplete the battery a lot quicker as the drive has to be constantly accessed.

With that in mind its worth considering just how much quality you think you will perceive on a pair of headphones on a train or whilst walking. To that end something along the lines of AAC at 192 will be more than sufficient.

Hi Andrew,

Definitely Apple Lossless codec. Stereophile and The Absolute Sound had articles in the last several months about iPod sound, and both advocated Apple Lossless. If memory serves, John Atkinson of Stereophile said he checked bits going in vs the bits coming out and they were indeed identical, hence it truly is lossless. Apple Lossless compresses to about 1/2 the size: if one hour of CD music is approx. 750 MB of data, Apple Lossless will yield a file of about 375 MB. I pretty much plan on three CDs per GB of iPod disc space. I agree that life is too short to trade good sound for storage capacity. While Garyi makes a good point about battery life, I would also rather get 9 Hr. of listening to good sound than 12 Hr. of digital artifacts.

Norman

Also, Andrew, if you are interested in the best portable sound possible, I would be happy to indicate my choices in interconnect, headphone amp, and cans, though I have covered those in detail on previous threads.

Norman

I maintain that if he is going to use the iPod for its intended use, i.e. whilst out and about, it won't make a blind bit of difference what quality its set at.

But of course he has all the time in the world to discover that.

I've just started using 320kbits and find that it's more natural, even when out and about, but to be honest I get more interference from the exterior than from any problems with the lossy compression. I haven't tried lossless, I much preferred 160kbits to 128kbits and tried 224 as the next jump up from 160kbits and didn't find I gained much, if anything,a nd that was listening through main 202/200 system. I've only tried .mp3 a couple of times, I use the AAC compression.

I use 192 rate and that seems fine, except that my 30GB ipod is nearly full, so I'm now thinking of a 60GB, but I'd like to think that they might get bigger still. I'd really like to have all my CD's on it. It's a nice idea to have no compromise on sound quality, but that isn't what the ipod's for IMO. You'll see in time. Do get ipodutil off the web to make a full backup and swap files both ways. It'll make it easier to manage. Also beware that once you've had one, you won't be able to do without one ever again.

No matter what you plan to put in your i-pod, I would at least rip to i-tunes in your computer in Apple lossless. It is easy to convert the files to a smaller size for your i-pod from i-tunes.

I use mp3 and 192 kBit/s rate ripped using EAC. I used to use AAC (ripped using iTunes) at a similar rate. The problem with AAC is that only apple seem to support it so if you buy any other portable player in the future you are likely to have to rip all your stuff again to MP3 to be able to use it.

I recently bought a small sony flash based player for the gym and that's why I started using MP3's since it does not support AAC.

Considering that car stereos now come as "ipod ready" and car manufacturers are sending out their cars with ipod ports as standard equipment, I would say that ensuring compatability with the also-rans isn't worth the effort. Funny to think we are talking Apple here with the boot on the other foot.

Excellent advice.
Try your favorite CD in several formats, do your own listening tests and see.
Clearly the Apple Lossless format gives you best sound with some space-saving compression.
I find that AAC is fine for my car and Etymotic E4's on airplanes and my Sony MDR-7506's at work.
YMMV, have fun experiementing! Costs you nothing but a little time and patients.
David

Hmm. This is going to be interesting.

I have had a few MP3s on the iPod (at 192k), then tonight ripped a CD using Apple Lossless.

It's like night and day with the Apple Lossless carrying so much more information.

The downside is the difference in file size. 330Mb for the Lossless v 50Mb for the MP3. That makes a lot of difference with a 4Gb Nano.

I have yet to work out what the answer is; perhaps Lossless for classical and MP3 for the rest.

Thanks for the info.

Hi Andrew,

It's hard to say what I would do with only 4 GB, though I find 20 GB more than adequate for my needs. I might consider having task specific playlists like "gym", "background" or "traveling" and load the iPod appropriately. Still, I think that only a dozen CDs' worth of music would be too limited for a prolonged business trip or vacation. That is one reason that the Nano has not interested me too much; the other is that partnered with the Porta Corda external amp, the Nano's size does not represent a major advantage since it all has to go into a fanny pack or other carrying bag.

Norman

The 4GB vs. 30GB size difference is why I replaced my stolen 20GB (pre-Nano release) with the 30.
4 just isn't enough for me, I don't want to be playing "swap-tronics" with my iPod all the time, trying to anticipate what mood I'll be in for the week, the business trip, etc.
Nano's size, while attractive, was not enough of a push for me.
David

Andrew

Very good tip from Rockingdoc; whatever you do, rip all your music to Apple lossless in itunes. I didn’t and it is very annoying and boring having to rip CD’s and WAF files (LP’s) again.

I’d also recommend doing a search for Norman/Cosmoliu’s posts on how to get the best sound quality out of your ipod (if that’s a concern). I followed his tips to the letter including Cardas mini cable and Porta Corda and it has made portable listening a very enjoyable experience.

Peter

PS: a big thank you to Norman

Rockindoc - "rip to i-tunes in your computer in Apple lossless" - is this done via [Advanced]/ [Convert selection to AAC] in itunes?


Anyone have any tips for finding the optimum master volume for each CD to optimise quality?

quote:

Originally posted by CPeter:

PS: a big thank you to Norman