Ripping CDs to lossless in Itunes.. HiFi approved?

You may have reached the right conclusion (or not) but for the wrong reasons. There are a lot of variables in play in your test, not just the file format of your rip.

09-28-08: Splaskin
Ed,

The slower the CPU, the worse Apple Lossless will sound. Faster CPU, no difference between AIFF and Apple Lossless.

How fast is fast? I.e., at what speed do you notice no difference?

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Hi Syncrasy... don't know. I 'm using MacMinis with 2 /GHz Core2 Duo, 1GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM on board for each. No problems. I think (therefore I think I hear) a difference with AIFF files vs Apple Lossless... but the powers of suggestion overwhelm...

(if you know what I mean)

:) listening,

Ed

.

Hi Ed. Actually, I was trying to get Splaskin's attention, since he's the one who made the claim about speed. (I've got a 1.67GHz PowerBook G4.) I'm not sure I would notice a difference anyway. The PowerBook currently is connected to my system via the 1/8" headphone jack, and I can hear only a slight difference between Apple Lossless and the original CD --and that's when I know which source I'm auditioning. If I were to do a blind test, I doubt I could tell which one was playing. (I guess I'm not quite audiophile material, yet.)

To follow up... I did my own comparison of Apple Lossless vs. AIFF (using my PowerBook G4 1.67GHz, connected via analog 1/8" jack to an Arcam FMJ w/ Dynaudio speakers). I did a blind A/B test and scored 50% (half my guesses were right, half were wrong). In other words, I could not tell the difference.