My first Ipod

[Coytee]

avoided WAVs ever since.

Oh great... and I just got done doing a ripping marathon going through every cd in my life...into WAV files... []

[InnerTuber]

Coytee,

Sending you an email

[toddvj]

That

Oh great... and I just got done doing a ripping marathon going through every cd in my life...into WAV files...

That's what I was getting at when you first mentioned you were ripping your files to WAV format. All is not lost, though. You can still find software that will convert from wav to another format.

[synthfreek]

Apple lossless is it! Nothing but!

One thing has me worried though. Are you implying that you are taking cd's that you've previously ripped to 320 and upconverting them to 1411? How exactly are you doing this because if you're doing it straight from the mp3(320) file you are NOT improving the sound quality at all. In fact you would be doing nothing but wasting hard drive space.

[EdgarFigaro]

I would agree with the Apple Lossless Format. Although .wav format is the only REAL uncompressed format, the Apple format is pretty damn awesome. As a current home theatre salesman, I am so much more attuned to noticing hiss and compression especially on this sweet pair of AKG headphones. The Lossless does it fine AND it can find all the ID3 info and album usually without a hitch. Microsoft's player is utter trash honestly. iTunes is a little bloated, but for ripping purposes, it rules. You can specify other formats other than Apple Lossless. (by the way, the Sony PSP with my current firmware at least plays the Apple format just fine) Also since you're using the iPod and a PC, I don't see where'd you not be able to play your files. PCs have line outs, the iPod has a headphone jack or you can get a sweet dock for the home stereo. Oh and there are ALWAYS conversion programs out there to switch file formats, most are free.

My two cents is worth a nickel.

[synthfreek]

.aiff is not compressed. It is just the native Apple format for audio. From what I've read Apple Lossless doesn't really take anything away from the music. It's closer to how a zip file works with data. It "zips" the music file and "unzips" it as it being played rahter than just removing bits like mp3's do.

[toddvj]

Apple lossless is not the same as .aiff. And it is compressed, just like any other Lossless format.

[colterphoto1]

Maybe I'm not that picky, but at 192 it sounds fine to me. I do burn critical tracks, like those I know I'll be making compilation discs from for friends, in AIFF format. Haven't tried the new Apple formats yet.

[InnerTuber]

My understanding is a bit different. AIFF and WAV are lossless, i.e., you should get a ripped duplicate.

WAV files tend to have more problems moving from media player to player with things like album art.

Apple lossless and FLAC encode, then decode, but don't throw away any music. The do make the file size smaller.

Lossy rather throws info away to shrink depending upon the bit-rate and sample rate (settings). "Higher" settings may not lose enough to be material. Especially, if you grew up going to lot's of Deep Purple or Sabbath concerts.

Depending upon how you hook things up, lossy may sound just fine, that's preference and circumstance, and given whatever amount of storage at yoru disposal you can hold more songs.

For example, to give fodder, compressed may sound near identical to a WAV file if played on an iPod via a transmitter to your car radio. Compressed may sound near identical if you run a line out of the iPod and split into RCA jacks or poke it into an input on the front of a receiver / car player.

As you get closer to the raw data, perhaps using USB out and with a DAC, then you begin hear more differences in formats. The aformentioned is generalizations for cds.

Ripped vinyl or other music can benefit from higher bit/sample rates. Mo info so to speak. No real point in upsampling cd's I am aware of to improve quality. Aren't gonna get more info than you started with.

For good quality cds, based on my learnings, if you use Windows, FLAC is hard to beat. If you use a Mac, AIFF is hard to beat. Ultimately, near anything can darn near be played on anything with conversion, but why bother ... the exception being hi-res music, which very few iPods will really appreciate to begin with. Nor, does iTunes appreciate FLAC, so one converts or using a second player.