Apple iTunes purchases Quality?

Posted by: Mike Woodcock on 26 January 2016

I have made a number of purchases over the years from iTunes and these have been duly downloaded to my iMac in ALAC format I believe.

How can I ensure that I have downloaded them in the highest possible quality? I know ALAC is lossless, but if it has been heavily compressed etc, if I unpack it to a WAV/FLAC file, is it truly the highest quality?

Many thanks

Mike

Posted on: 26 January 2016 by james n

No - its already lossy compressed (information discarded) by iTunes at source (128 or 256k AAC is iTunes store format not ALAC) so unpacking to WAV (AIFF in the Apple world) would make the file size bigger but not improve quality. Lossless compression (ie WAV / AIFF to FLAC / ALAC) allows you to compress and de-compress with no loss of quality.

Posted on: 26 January 2016 by Mike Woodcock

Thanks James - Yes I have just confirmed that for myself! Oh well, we live and learn, no more music purchases from Apple!

Posted on: 26 January 2016 by james n

Mike, They don't sound too bad, especially at 256k but the info has still gone. With all the streaming services coming online (and internet connection speeds going up all the time) i wonder if Apple will eventually allow ALAC downloads.

James