CD ripping

ghosthouse

I associated the M4a extension with ALAC only. Didn’t realize, as Al points out, that M4A can also be for AAC.

I didn't know m4a could be lossless, either. Thanks to Al for the info!
 

Hence ASSumed you were talking about ALAC.  Still, a general statement that M4a is lossy/ compressed is not 100% accurate given the possible association with ALAC. No offense intended

Quite so! No offense taken!

If the user has any IOS devices that are being synced for music playback, then consideration should be given to which file formats are compatible with iTunes. FLAC still isn't iTunes compatible. 

My library is only 27K tracks. Given the cheaper cost of storage and because I desired my files be as universal compatibility as possible - including tagging, I decided to rip to AIFF. The trade off is that my IOS devices hold fewer tracks - unless I use iTunes to convert -on the fly- when syncing. 

The library still fits easily on a 2TB drive.

Treating the CD prior to ripping should improve matters, ditto better power cord, fuse, isolating the ripper, all of these things.

To lie in the meadow and hear the grass sing,
To have all these things in our memories hoard,
And to use them,
To help us,
To find...

C Dripping.

flac 0 through flac 8 (I think that is the highest) are lossless, compressed formats. dBpoweramp also provides Uncompressed flac, which is not compressed at all. It is basically a wav file with a flac header. If anyone is concerned about flac compression, uncompressed flac is a good option since it has the metadata capability that wav lacks. There are versions of wav with metadata, but they seem to be pretty nonstandard. I think most players play uncompressed flac.

If the m4a files are lossless, then I would suggest converting a couple to uncompressed flac, flac 5, wav or one of the Apple formats and comparing them to see if you hear a difference. Then re-rip the same album to your preferred format and see if you hear a difference. It is easier to do the experiment than to re-rip everything. You can also re-rip at a later time.

If your m4a are lossy, then definitely consider re-ripping.

Obviously, take your time upfront, before launching a time consuming process.