Converting ALAC to AIFF in iTunes
Posted by: DT79 on 19 June 2010
Hi - I'm hoping someone has the expertise to help answer my question!
I've ripped most of my music library to Apple Lossless format using iTunes, a few things I have in AIFF and I've tried ripping to both formats and comparing them. Any differences I've perceived have been so small as to make me wonder whether I'm imagining them or not.
However based on various opinions and other peoples experiences that I've read, there seems to be a school of thought that even lossless compression can have a detrimental effect on sound quality when replayed compared with uncompressed files due to the requirement to unpack the file in real-time as it's played back and the (albeit small I'm sure) exertion on the CPU that this requires. I don't really want to ignite a debate over whether that's really the case - I know these things can get messy! Storage space isn't too much of an issue and whilst I can't tell much if any difference right now whilst using my MacBook as my source, I do intend to get a dedicated streaming device when the right one presents itself and I figure at that point I might as well be feeding it the purest thing possible.
So my question is, if I set the import format in iTunes to AIFF, select my ALAC files and then go 'create AIFF version' then will this simply unpack the ALAC file and put the requisite wrapping on it without doing any unnecessary jiggery-pokery? Bottom line - if I 'create AIFF version' from an ALAC rip in iTunes, will I end up with the same thing I would have got if I had ripped to AIFF in the first place?
Thanks!
I've ripped most of my music library to Apple Lossless format using iTunes, a few things I have in AIFF and I've tried ripping to both formats and comparing them. Any differences I've perceived have been so small as to make me wonder whether I'm imagining them or not.
However based on various opinions and other peoples experiences that I've read, there seems to be a school of thought that even lossless compression can have a detrimental effect on sound quality when replayed compared with uncompressed files due to the requirement to unpack the file in real-time as it's played back and the (albeit small I'm sure) exertion on the CPU that this requires. I don't really want to ignite a debate over whether that's really the case - I know these things can get messy! Storage space isn't too much of an issue and whilst I can't tell much if any difference right now whilst using my MacBook as my source, I do intend to get a dedicated streaming device when the right one presents itself and I figure at that point I might as well be feeding it the purest thing possible.
So my question is, if I set the import format in iTunes to AIFF, select my ALAC files and then go 'create AIFF version' then will this simply unpack the ALAC file and put the requisite wrapping on it without doing any unnecessary jiggery-pokery? Bottom line - if I 'create AIFF version' from an ALAC rip in iTunes, will I end up with the same thing I would have got if I had ripped to AIFF in the first place?
Thanks!