Best iTunes Rips

Posted by: JBGood on 24 March 2011

While I am planning to upgrade my streaming audio this year, I am currently working in an iTunes environment.   Are Apple Lossless files the best way to go?

I've been reading the past few months of posts on this forum.  I must admit I find the number of options for setting up a streaming audio system to be a bit overwhelming.

iTunes/AppleTV(2)/DacMagic/XS/FC2/NACA5/TotemArro
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by DavidDever
Keep in mind that, if you are streaming to an AppleTV2 (from a Mac?), there will be re-sampling involved–best bet is to rip to WAV or AIFF, which presents the easiest conversion to Apple Lossless possible.

Why not rip to Apple Lossless in the first place? Because the file must be unpacked before it is re-sampled to 48 kHz and re-packed for transmission. It's an easy comparison to do.
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by AKa
Hi,
as long as you stay in the world of Apple iTunes/ATV2 and ALAC might be the right choice.

But ATV is not a HiFi device, the components used for audio data transmission are cheap, all audio files gets upstreamed to 48kHz, which might yield a quality loss.

If you want to stream FLAC (which is a quite common format) it will not work in iTunes as these format is not supported by Apple.

ALAC is very seldom supported, I assume that Apple charges license fees for it.

I started with iTunes/ATV2/Pro-ject DAC/Linn Classic but ended with RipNAS/UnitiQute which sounds far better.

cheers Adi
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by JBGood
David,
Thanks very much for the specific suggestions.   Exactly what I was looking for. So, if I understand your post correctly, I should experiment with WAV or AIFF, vs Apple Lossless.   I look forward to comparing.

Regards.
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by JBGood
David,
I'm going to experiment w/ the WAV encoder option in iTunes tonight.   Recommendations on settings:  "automatic" or something in the "custom" options?

Thanks.
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by Guido Fawkes
 > Are Apple Lossless files the best way to go?

No, but it is as good a way as any; I use AIFF.

I would avoid WAV unless you need it for compatibility with a Naim item that renders the music. Reason is it that WAV does not support Tags very well and this may be a problem down the line.

As you are using iTunes the AIFF and ALAC both work equally well - what will come out of your ATV2 into your DacMagic will be the same stream of data - try it and I'll be surprised if you hear any differences. You can easily convert between ALAC and AIFF or WAV if you want - the files will be the same in terms of music content.

The advantage of ALAC is they are smaller than AIFF and so easier to back-up to an external drive, although with the new Apple computers using Thunderbolt in preference to USB, this is not such a big issue.

There is so much discussion on this, but really WAV, AIFF, ALAC and FLAC are all the same - they are lossless formats stored in a different way. The files ending with LAC are like ZIP file on a PC or Stuffit files on a MAC - they are decompressed on the fly. 

If you're using ATV2 wirelessly then ALAC would be a good choice as it is smaller, but it doesn't really matter especially if you have a good wireless connection. 

The only real tip is to make sure you have error correction set in iTunes preferences as this is useful if there is damage on the CD. In fact if your CD is damaged and iTunes is having problems then I use XLD to rip that one CD. A good quality CD drive helps too - I found my MacBook's slot loading Sony drive to be more reliable than the older drawer loading Sony. The old Pioneer drive in the Apple PowerBook was superb, but slow. However, if the drive is problematic then you'll know because the rip will take forever. So again nothing to lose sleep over.  

All the best Guy

 
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by totemphile
Originally Posted by Guido Fawkes:
There is so much discussion on this, but really WAV, AIFF, ALAC and FLAC are all the same - they are lossless formats stored in a different way. 

Ohhh Guy - you've opened a can of worms here, plenty of people who will disagree
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by George Fredrik
Originally Posted by totemphile:
Originally Posted by Guido Fawkes:
There is so much discussion on this, but really WAV, AIFF, ALAC and FLAC are all the same - they are lossless formats stored in a different way. 

Ohhh Guy - you've opened a can of worms here, plenty of people who will disagree

I happen to agree with Mr Fawkes. Much has been said about this and absolutely no evident difference beyond personal preference for [I would suggest auto-suggested expectations, being met] this or that lossless format has ever been shown to be provable or repeatable.

If the CD is is less than pristine condition, then two options present themselves for a clean rip. Get a new copy of the CD, which guarantees it, or apply one of the numerous rescue rip programs, which will make the best possible [but still probably imperfect] job of the damaged source.

Of 550 CDs ripped in iTunes I have found only one that exhibits CD damage artefacts [i.e. a ticking related to the CD rotation and indicating damage across that short section of the CD - not unlike the apparently acceptable, for many vinyl lovers at least, phenomenon of a scratch on an LP, though it is faster]. I shall eventually replace the CD and re-rip.

ATB from George
Posted on: 24 March 2011 by Tog
I think the server/renderer may be a more important factor than the rip itself. I suspect that Naim have tuned the sound of their Uniti series around wav / flac or that their electronics simply sound better with these two.



Tog
Posted on: 25 March 2011 by manicm
When ripping in iTunes my ears consistently find AIFF better - and it supports album art. I'd choose it everytime over ALAC, space permitting.
Posted on: 25 March 2011 by Rich27
Are AIFF and ALAC files exactly the same when converted from one format to the other?  The reason I ask is that I have been re-ripping some cd's (that I originally did in ALAC in the old days before I had my NAS) to AIFF.  Some of the cd's have been in the wifes car and played with by the kids and are therefore in a bad way, would I be better off converting the old ALAC file to AIFF in iTunes rather than re-ripping the damaged cd?  I am too tight to buy a new copy of the cd before you ask!
Posted on: 27 March 2011 by JBGood

Thanks to all who replied in this thread.  I am now ripping CD's using iTunes and the AIFF format.  So far so good.

Posted on: 27 March 2011 by JBGood

A few follow-up questions for you folks.  

 

(1)  Any reason not to leave the error correction "on" in iTunes while ripping?

(2)  Does it matter if I rip in iTunes using my PC vs my MacBook Pro?

(3)  Recommendations for how and where to store all these AIFF files?  

 

Thanks.