Keeping my options open as I take my first steps in DA

quote:

Originally posted by novelty:

the library in question is stored in 128 AAC.

Before you do anything else. Rerip to ALAC or FLAC or AT LEAST V0 or 320 MP3

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:

quote:

Originally posted by novelty:

the library in question is stored in 128 AAC.

Before you do anything else. Rerip to ALAC or FLAC or AT LEAST V0 or 320 MP3

No worries, this is the library i use for my ipod touch.

i'm in the process of re-ripping to Apple Lossless for HiFi. Lossless = ALAC right?

Are you sure that you want ALAC? Hope that you do not regret your decision a few months down the road.

Well I'm officially in the waiting line for the new DAC, i put down my deposit today.

Should I be using XLD??

I'm using a macbook pro/Lacie 1 TB(connected via eSata) that I will eventually feed the Naim DAC via Airport Express (for now). I have an Ipod Touch and would like to utilize the remote app.

I'm currently re-ripping my library in WAV via the latest i-Tunes (still haven't found the setting for gapless).

I'd like to get the best HiFi I can get while remaining scalable for for the future (ie I could go the remainder of my life without re-ripping my library again).

quote:

Originally posted by novelty:
Should I be using XLD??

I'm using a macbook pro/Lacie 1 TB(connected via eSata) that I will eventually feed the Naim DAC via Airport Express (for now). I have an Ipod Touch and would like to utilize the remote app.

I'm currently re-ripping my library in WAV via the latest i-Tunes (still haven't found the setting for gapless).

I'd like to get the best HiFi I can get while remaining scalable for for the future (ie I could go the remainder of my life without re-ripping my library again).

If you're using Mac and iTunes I would avoid WAV and rip to AIFF instead. iTunes will play back WAV files but doesn't support tagging WAV files and no albumn art is available. With AIFF gapless playback is there without any settings needed.

As for using XLD: my decision was that for new things I would use XLD as then I get the confidence of SecureRip and error reporting (unlike iTunes) but in terms of Sound Quality unless there was errors duringthe original rip I've not noticed any difference so I'm not planning on re-ripping everything or anything daft like that.

Eloise

Thanks for the reply Eloise.

That's weird, I'm seeing Album artwork in iTunes with WAV rips. Track, cd, and album info is there also.

quote:

Originally posted by novelty:
Thanks for the reply Eloise.

That's weird, I'm seeing Album artwork in iTunes with WAV rips. Track, cd, and album info is there also.

Is that artwork that iTunes has found or artwork you've added yourself? I didn't think iTunes supported any artwork with WAV files but maybe it will download from the iTMS. The support for WAV files may have chaned in iTunes v9 as well - I've not tried for a while.

With respect to tags - iTunes identifies the track title / album / artist but this is stored in the iTunes library files (and XML equivilent) not as tags in the actual file. This is fine until you want to transfer the tracks to another computer, or you have problems and need to reimport the tracks as iTunes relies on embedded tags to get the track information in this case. Weather this is important to you is of course upto you but the lack of ths makes WAV a difficult format to recommend long term -you can only tell the album, etc. a track is from by the folder it's stored in. You could name it in the format %artist% - %album% - %tracknumber% - %tracktitle% or similar but iTunes doesn't do this so you're back to using something more configurable like XLD.

Eloise

I believe iTunes is finding the artwork, I haven't downloaded any.

So it sounds like I should be using XLD if I want to rip in WAV.

Or if I want to stay with iTunes I should rip in Apple Lossless.

I was hoping I could use iTunes and WAV without a lot of difficulty.

It has been said number of times before that AIFF is the best choice but then it is entirely up to you to choose which format you feel most comfortable.

quote:

Originally posted by novelty:
I believe iTunes is finding the artwork, I haven't downloaded any.

So it sounds like I should be using XLD if I want to rip in WAV.

Or if I want to stay with iTunes I should rip in Apple Lossless.

I was hoping I could use iTunes and WAV without a lot of difficulty.

My personal solution is to use XLD (to give me confidence that the rips are without errors) and either AIFF (uncompressed PCM format) or ALAC (losslessly compressed) - my decision changes between confidence that there is no additional decompression stage, and the extra space (on the iPod) that AIFF needs.

But as others say - it's up to you what format you use. You won't really go wrong with either AIFF or ALAC, some people claim / notice a difference between losslessly compressed and uncompressed on playback (though others say this is impossible), but only YOU can judge if this is something that YOU notice. If you do later change your mind and decide you want AIFF from ALAC files (or vice versa) then XLD will convert from one to the other without you needing to babysit it so while it will take a few hours to convert a good sized library, you can just leave it to do its own thing.

Eloise

quote:

Originally posted by novelty:
Is this where I get XLD?

Yes that is correct.