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AAC, AIFF, Lossless, MP3

Hey everyone... In anticipation of receiving an iPod for Christmas I burned all of my favorite songs from my CD collection using iTunes into Apple Lossless. I have about 10 gig worth of songs that need to fit into an 8 gig Nano and would like extra space for future songs, photos, etc.

What is the best option where I won't hear too much of a difference from Lossless format but takes up less space?

Thanks!
portugal11
jeffreybowman2k
216 posts
 
Cwlondon: Here, here.

The best solution that i have been able to discern so far is: (1) hard drive to external adaptor (e.g., Trends Audio UD-10 or Empirical Off Ramp Turbo 2 via USB, (2) external adaptor to DAC via your preference of digital cable (both adaptors mentioned above come in different flavors; UD-10 provides multiple outputs), and so on through you system.

I know of no way to utilize WAV files and preserve tagging; seems that you need to convert to some lossless codec (Apple, FLAC, etc.).
portugal11 OP
52 posts
 
Sort of a related question regarding iTunes...

What is the highest quality download that you can obtain from the iTunes store. I don't believe that they offer downloads in Apple Lossless, is that correct? If so, how high up the chain can you go?

Thanks again!
herman
2,282 posts
 
Cwlondon, there is no such thing as a tagged wav file. There are various programs that can manage wav files and maintain a database of the same information that a tag usually contains, but the problem is if anything gets corrupted you can lose the tag info for all of your wav files at once, and this information won't get passed along if you choose another file manager.

Since the compresed formats all maintain the tag information as part of the music file, if one file gets corrupted it doesn't affect any of the others. I went with iTunes and Apple lossles because:

1. it does maintain the tags
2. IMHO the iTunes interface is the best
3. I can't hear a difference between it and wav
4. I can always convert them back to a bit perfect wav
5. I can't imagine trying to maintain and configure something as convoluted as EAC and foobar
6. It does save some space but if I thought I could get better sound I would use something else
7. I've got a lot of files and very seldom get a pop or a click using iTunes with error correction
jeffreybowman2k
216 posts
 
best you can do in itunes is 128CBR. there may be a few choices at 320, but that's the rare exception.
portugal11 OP
52 posts
 
Wow, 128, I was hoping for a little more resolution! I'm very happy with MP3 at 320 VBR on the Nano. Thanks to all that guided me in that direction. As an experiment, I went from the line out on the dock into my Plinius integrated and while the sound wasn't "audiophile" it's just fine for background music.

To pay $1/song for less resolution doesn't make sense to me. I'll continue to purchase CD's from half.com and convert them myself... I wish Apple would really provide iTunes downloads in Lossless. I would stop buying CD's for just 1 or 2 songs.
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