flac, wave, mp4, iPod files????

I hear what your saying Jax2.Ipods are not my providence.Need to rip and compare.I am curious of all things musically speaking.....

I hook my iPod up to my Pathos Classic MkIII with a Cardas cable and love it. I just want to make sure I'm getting the most this set up has to offer. I guess I could convert flac to wave and try it that way.

Try computeraudiophile.com.....Chris is his name.Its a great site....perhaps you've seen it?I learned the little I know from there mainly.Let us know what you think,got to get all we can.....

In terms of resolution, FLAC = WAVE = MP4 ALAC (Apple Lossless).

Wave is rather useless on an iPod. It is full size and can't support meta data without a lot of effort.

FLAC is a free lossless audio codec. It's free, so people love it! No lock in. Apple does not support FLAC because it supports its own lossless codec. ALAC will sound EXACTLY like the FLAC files if transcoded. A simple tool to do this is with dbpoweramp Grab this awesome software for relatively cheap and if you buy FLAC files online, transcode them to ALAC and dump them on your iPod all in a matter of seconds. Seriously, seconds.

Older iPods are able to play FLAC files by adding an open source operating system onto the unit and dual booting. It's called Rockbox and is quite a polished system but it chews up battery life and for most instances, is really only worthwhile if one wants to play file formats the iPod doesn't support. In that case, just use dbpoweramp to convert and be done with it.

As for getting the most out of one's iPod, the iPod, if housing ALAC files (ir AIFF or WAVE) will be an exceptional transport! Pick up Wadia's Ipod Transport and this doc BYPASSES the iPods internal dac and allows bitperfect digital signal to leave the iPod and get streamed to whatever stand alone DAC is in one's main system.

Thanks for the detailed and understandable explanation Zanth, now we're talking! I can't wait to try out your recommendations. I got my eye on the Wadia, it appears to be a high quality piece of gear.