CD ripping for the lower end.
Why would there be a loss in quality between WAV and FLAC? I know that FLAC is compressed but it is still lossless. Is quality lost in uncompressing the file? Anyway, yes, I would probably like to have tags and such. Does AIFF support tags/metadata? Also, thanks for the reference to XLD. I’ll look that up. |
Free XLD on your Mac is the way to go. Rip them to AIFF if you want to use with iTunes(which I hate), Audirvana+, Amarra or anything else. It supports tags, art etc. and is lossless. With AIFF you can download same files to your iphone for portable or car listening. FLAC is a nuisance in appleland, as they don't support it. You can convert FLAC to AIFF with many free or cheap software programs. On mac, it's a worthwhile small investment to buy the Yate app to manage/edit your tags. Your 2nd step is on the right track. Just skip the 1st step. iTunes sux. If you rip to AIFF or FLAC you will also be able to eventually copy the files to a true NAS if you decide to upgrade and then still use the mac for accessing the server, ripping to the server on your network etc. FYI, one of the worst things about building a library in iTunes is that art is embedded on the songs in a way that when you copy the files elsewhere, you lose all the art. Rip to AIFF, save cover.jpg to each album's folder(XLD does this automatically). Then you will have a portable, extractable library including art. Cheers, Spencer |
Hey n80 CDs are digital. The digits are stored on a disc, are read by a scanning laser, and then fed to a DAC contained within the player. That is what Clearthink was getting at. You are interested in moving the digits from your CDs to have them reside in one place, on a Hard Drive. WAVis total uncompression. FLAC compresses the digits a bit, but nothing like MP3 or it’s equivalents. The digits are then mostly uncompressed on playback. Think of it as jamming socks into a drawer. When you pull out the smooshed item, it will probably look just fine when you put them on your feet. A real nit picker, like your wife or mother, may notice a slight inconsequential wrinkle. Most people can’t hear a difference between FLAC and WAV, or Apple Lossless, but perhaps an Audio Professional like audioenginr can. Where FLAC really shines is in the handling of metadata |
Let's clarify something: Lossless vs. Compression Lossless means the bits played are identical to the bits copied. FLAC and ALAC compress but are lossless. MP3 , Ogg and other formats attain even more compression by throwing away a lot of the data in the recording. A WAV file typically is lossless (PCM) But not always the case. More here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/560011/compressed-and-uncompressed-wav-files |
