iTunes and FLAC
Posted by: james n on 13 September 2008
I finally got round to converting some of the Linn downloads i had downloaded when i was playing with the Squeezeboxes. iTunes doesn't work out of the box with FLAC files so i used a neat little app called Xact to convert from FLAC to AIFF. I then imported the resulting AIFF files into the library and then manually re named them. All the track names were fine but the artist / album tags weren't generated.
The files sound very good. I've got the 24 / 44.1 versions of Judith Owen and Andrew White and a 24/96 version of Claire Martin, Perfect Alibi. All play fine in iTunes but my n-Vi doesnt see the 96khz stream (when Audiomidi is set to 96khz). Plays fine though at 44.1 with quicktime doing the sample conversion. Looking forward to hearing it properly through the Lavry.
Anyone else tried 24/96 via iTunes ?
Cheers
James
Posted on: 13 September 2008 by Steve S1
James,
The Linn site suggests "Max". I used it and all the info came OK. Try Linn Records.
Steve
Posted on: 13 September 2008 by james n
Cheers Steve. I'll give that one a go :-)
James
Posted on: 13 September 2008 by glevethan
Another vote for MAX.
Gregg
Posted on: 13 September 2008 by james n
Steve, Gregg,
Does the Lavry see the 96khz stream when played via iTunes ok ?
Ta
James
Posted on: 14 September 2008 by Steve S1
quote:
Originally posted by james n:
Steve, Gregg,
Does the Lavry see the 96khz stream when played via iTunes ok ?
Ta
James
Yes, no problem. You set the Mac Audio MIDI to 96khz 2-ch 24bit, then open iTunes.
Enjoy making your own comparisons.
Steve
Posted on: 14 September 2008 by james n
Hi Steve - ran up Max this morning. Much better interface and deals with the album art and tagging perfectly. Cheers for the heads up.
Just curious with the core audio setting at 96khz as it seems to upsample lower rates to this rather than being transparent to lower sample rates. I take it with core audio set at 96khz the Lavry shows 96khz even when playing 44.1khz files ? I cant verify this myself at the mo as my n-Vi wont accept 96khz (even though the DAC is quoted as 24 / 192).
Cheers
James
PS - i'm curious to hear what the Lavry will be like on the output from my V+ box. I've got Goldfrapp at Glastonbury and some Live from Abbey Rd sessions recorded. The Virgin sound feed can be very good.
Posted on: 14 September 2008 by Steve S1
quote:
Originally posted by james n:
Just curious with the core audio setting at 96khz as it seems to upsample lower rates to this rather than being transparent to lower sample rates. I take it with core audio set at 96khz the Lavry shows 96khz even when playing 44.1khz files ?.
Hi James,
Yes, that's correct.
You can check easily enough that the 96/24 stuff has arrived with the correct sample rate and file size. A quick comparison had them matching their FLAC original, no problem. You might want to change back the core audio settings when you go back to CD rips, I find the upsampling to 96 worsens the sound. Keeping 24 bit size is better than 16. So that can be left.
The Linn samples I have sound fine but the music is the usual cheesy MOR crap, that audiophile samples specialise in. There are a few classical/choral excerpts that are more interesting.
But I think I have to do a lot more investigation into the sources of recordings - I am, for example, unsure which are upsampled and which were recorded in a native 96/24. To be honest, in my system the best of CDs sound superb and take some beating. So I suspect, the mastering is more important.
Steve
Posted on: 14 September 2008 by pcstockton
Better than having to convert would be to use ANY other player than itunes for critical listening.
Itunes is sweet for loading you Ipod, but unless you can get it to support FLAC (good luck), i would simply use another player.
Any of these will work:
* Cog
* Cynthiune music player
* MacAmp Lite X
* Play, a versatile open-source player/music manager that supports FLAC and Ogg FLAC.
* PureMusic Audio Player
* Songbird
* VLC
* XiphQT component for Quicktime/iTunes that supports Ogg FLAC playback
FLAC is the way ALL downloads are coming to come in the near future. While they are easily converted, it is much easier to simply play them as such.
Sorry but it is the truth.
I have seen and used "Play". While of course not as sexy as Itunes, it is much more capable.
It is all about the music right?
