FLAC or ALAC or ?

Unworthy

Unworthy

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Joined
May 13, 2014
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Tempe, AZ
Hello everyone, new guy here! Been lurking for a few weeks, but signed up today.

I'm getting ready to start ripping all of my CD collection for hard drive playback. The info out there seems to be disjointed, hard to comprehend, out of date, or some combination of the three.

My modest setup in the "Cave" is a Cambridge Audio 651A Integrated pushing a pair of old JBL L80t floor standers on some shortened IKEA lamp tables with marble tops. I listen, primarily, to Pandora One streamed from one of my iDevices thru an Apple TV (a slick little combination, indeed) or CDs thru an early Sony Bluray player. Also have a laptop running Windows7 where I store all of my old MP3 rips and a handful of Hi-rez files. Everything runs thru a MicroMega DAC then to the CA. It's a little more complicated than my wife would like, but it sounds OK and was inexpensive. Next hardware update will be a better universal disc/media player.

My goal is to have the convenience of Pandora playback with more options, like being able to play entire albums, create custom playlists or random shuffles. I also like the concept of having everything on a physical media and have decided that CDs are my media of choice since my Ex sold the last of my LP collection in a garage sale years ago. I find the way Apple tries to force you to use only their hardware, software and their Cloud service to be distasteful, but their stuff works pretty slick and Microsoft is just as slimy in that regard. I've been using iTunes for several years and have about 2,000 MP3 downloads and will want to rip to both MP3 (for portable devices) and lossless formats. It's familiar, but I've never thought iTunes to be very intuitive or flexible. My question is, with my combination of Apple and Windows gear, what file format and software would you recommend for ripping CDs and playback? The software doesn't need to be free, in fact I dislike how the free stuff tends to be more intrusive.

Thanks in advance,
D
 
Welcome to AS!

Since Apple/iTunes won't play FLAC, I wouldn't rip to that. It will limit you from iTunes. If that isn't a problem, then FLAC is good. I would use the 0 setting for compression for the best sounding, for some DACs it makes a difference.
 
If you're using iTunes on a PC I would recommend using dbPoweramp for ripping. I've used a few different ones and like it the best.
Like Jock said, Apple doesn't do FLAC so a different file would be wise to use. Yes there are ways around it but why bother... ALAC will do just fine in your situation.


Sent from the Mitten using Tapatalk
 
the professor said:
Welcome to AS!

Since Apple/iTunes won't play FLAC, I wouldn't rip to that. It will limit you from iTunes. If that isn't a problem, then FLAC is good. I would use the 0 setting for compression for the best sounding, for some DACs it makes a difference.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that would be a problem since I intend to play from the Windows platform, however, it sounds like ALAC would work for now and if I should suddenly change to a Mac platform.

Thanks, I'll keep your suggestion about compression setting in mind when I start to rip and do some critical comparisons before I dive in.
 
I haven't found any difference in sound between ALAC and FLAC. I use dBpoweramp to rip which lets one rip to either format. I've been ripping to FLAC lately but it doesn't matter because my Foobar2000 player, (Windows only), handles both.

Incidentally I use FLAC's default "Lossless Level" of 5. This level has to do with ripping speed and file size only: all "levels" are completely lossless. Also incidentally, neither ALAC nor FLAC (at any "Lossless Level") make any difference to your DAC per se, because you player does the decompression before sending to the DAC.

dBpoweramp also has a file format convert that is very fast & efficient. So you can rip to rip to lossless, (ALAC or FLAC,), and copy the resulting files to MP3 or AAC as you prefer; (no need to rerip).
 
Feanor said:
dBpoweramp also has a file format convert that is very fast & efficient. So you can rip to rip to lossless, (ALAC or FLAC,), and copy the resulting files to MP3 or AAC as you prefer; (no need to rerip).
Click to expand...

Awesome, that's a nice feature!
 
I rip mine as AIFF because it's lossless and works w iTunes. But no compression like WAV files.

And yes flac is lossless no matter what compression setting you use. However, in some dacs the less work they have to do the better they sound. So the least amount of compression the better. Since storage is sooooo cheap now days. Why not have the best chance of the best sound.
 
the professor said:
I rip mine as AIFF because it's lossless and works w iTunes. But no compression like WAV files.

And yes flac is lossless no matter what compression setting you use. However, in some dacs the less work they have to do the better they sound. So the least amount of compression the better. Since storage is sooooo cheap now days. Why not have the best chance of the best sound.
Click to expand...

I agree, storage is unbelievably cheap now and getting cheaper almost every day.

Professor, is there a specific reason for the AIFF preference? Is it just more universal?

Anyone have any favorite playback software in addition to the Foobar 2000 already mentioned?

Thanks to everyone for the simple, concise input, except I don't get the Beats reference by Northstar. I mean, I know Apple just bought Beats, but I don't understand the reason for its inclusion here.:|

D
 
Unworthy said:
I agree, storage is unbelievably cheap now and getting cheaper almost every day.

Professor, is there a specific reason for the AIFF preference? Is it just more universal?

Anyone have any favorite playback software in addition to the Foobar 2000 already mentioned?

Thanks to everyone for the simple, concise input, except I don't get the Beats reference by Northstar. I mean, I know Apple just bought Beats, but I don't understand the reason for its inclusion here.:|

D
Click to expand...

As far as uncompressed files, it's either AIFF or WAV. I find that tagging WAV files can be a nightmare at times whereas AIFF seems to be easier to tag. I think J. River is the best playback software for Windows, heck it might even allow for FLAC files to be played through iTunes, but don't quote me on that. You'll have to read up on it to be sure.

JRiver Media Center software

And don't mind Bob (Northstar), you'll get to understand his flavor the more you hang around. :)
 
dlb2 said:
As far as uncompressed files, ...
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I sometimes forget the about the distinction between lossless and uncompressed files. And as has been said, storage is soooo cheap, while not just store uncompressed files (rhetorical question mark)

All right, I'm making progress here!
 
Unworthy said:
Ah yes, I sometimes forget the about the distinction between lossless and uncompressed files. And as has been said, storage is soooo cheap, while not just store uncompressed files (rhetorical question mark)
Click to expand...

I use ALAC, and FLAC for high-res, files. At this point, I must have thousands of songs (classical tracks which are usualy longer than pop tracks). Anyway, by using compression I have only used 300GB out of a 500GB drive. If I used uncompressed then I would be on my second drive instead of having 200GB left. Waste not, want not. As the saying goes.
 
BlueFox said:
I use ALAC, and FLAC for high-res, files. At this point, I must have thousands of songs (classical tracks which are usualy longer than pop tracks). Anyway, by using compression I have only used 300GB out of a 500GB drive. If I used uncompressed then I would be on my second drive instead of having 200GB left. Waste not, want not. As the saying goes.
Click to expand...

Indeed, and I've never noticed any difference between lossless, (ALAC or FLAC), and uncompressed, (AIFF or WAV). Other people claim they can hear the difference, but then some people claim Brilliant Pebbles make a difference too. People should compare and make up their own minds.

As a classical listener I like relatively complete tags, (metadata), which makes WAV out of the question.
 
Because of tagging. WAV isn't very good in the tagging dept.

Unworthy said:
I agree, storage is unbelievably cheap now and getting cheaper almost every day.

Professor, is there a specific reason for the AIFF preference? Is it just more universal?

Anyone have any favorite playback software in addition to the Foobar 2000 already mentioned?

Thanks to everyone for the simple, concise input, except I don't get the Beats reference by Northstar. I mean, I know Apple just bought Beats, but I don't understand the reason for its inclusion here.:|

D
Click to expand...
 
WAV just "isn't very good" - it is incapable of handling metadata.

FLAC is by far the most universal and well adopted format with the best playback capabilities.

AIFF/ALAC if and only if you are a die-hard "I-must-use-an-Apple-product-because-I-am-brainwashed" individual. Or you refuse to get off one of the worst sounding and databasing players out there: iTunes.
 
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