AIFF vs Apple Lossless Ripping

Jax2 - Equivalent of EAC for Mac is "MAX". I set mine to "do not allow skipping" and it reads music disk as data disk - bit by bit. It converts any format to any format. It even allows to download album's cover.

I send music from MacMini to Benchmark DAC1 using Airport Express and cannot hear any difference between AIFF and Apple Lossless.

Herman - Thanks, I didn't know that. As for the jitter Benchmark is practically jitter immune.

Rabco - I had the same dilemma. FLAC is more popular open standard while ALC is Apple's own. I decided to stay with Mac (I love this thing - had PC before) and don't see disadvantage of using Itunes and ALC. Compression is about the same and there is always option to batch convert whole drive to FLAC if I need it in the future (no need to re-rip).

Jimmywho - are you sure it was lossless (extension mp4a and file size about 50% of original)? I compared again sound of ALC over Airport Express, this time to direct connection CD player to Benchmark and cannot hear the difference.

"is "MAX" by the same folks who created EAC?"

I don't think so. Wasn't EAC written by the student in Germany?

I use MAX (http://sbooth.org/Max/) with Snow Leopard on Intel Mac Mini in Cdparanoia "don't allow skipping" error correction mode. One bad disk I have gets stuck on MAX while iTunes lets it go. You can also set any number of tries. Cdparanoia (check in Wikipedia) can be used with drives that don't cache music. It works on my Intel Mac Mini. If it doesn't - there are two other modes. Itunes has better Metadata library and Max has subprogram to transfer it. Max allows then to obtain CD cover picture (Itunes won't get cover of CDs ripped by other programs).

I cannot hear any difference between ALAC and AIFF but it might be placebo effect since I know that hard disk ALAC or AIFF files have no timing and in reality it takes shorter to decompress than read larger file from hard drive. Data comes in packets anyway and has no timing until it is placed in output buffers and clocked out. I hope that Al (Almarg), being computer expert, can join us and explain it better. Is it possible that something else plays part in ALAC vs AIFF playback? (different playback program, computer settings etc.) Again, I'm just trying to understand without questioning anybody's findings.

Thanks, Al. Your explanation makes perfect sense (as usual). Perhaps even Solid State Drives can really sound better, as Steve N. suspected, for the same reason of electrical noise being converted to jitter.

I feel lucky with my setup where computer is separated from the rest of the system while music stored in ALAC is delivered wirelessly bit perfect to Airport Express also in ALAC (no decompression in computer) to finally reach jitter suppressing Benchmark DAC1. Computer clock/timing is completely separated since data is buffered and AE creates its own output clock. AE and DAC1 are plugged into filtered outputs of power conditioner (Furman Elite) while data is supplied by short glass Toslink.

I said, I feel lucky, since my main reason for AE was to keep computer near sofa (doubling as home computer) and not the electrical noise.

AAC is compressed like MP3 (but better sound quailty).  WAV doesn't have ability to store metadata (track names etc.).  AIFF shouldn't have any options, being uncompressed.  Your choice is between Apple Lossless (ALAC) and AIFF.  ALAC is about 50% smaller than AIFF.  I store everything in ALAC because I use Apple computer and Iunes, but also because my wireless streaming to Airport Express uses ALAC as format (avoiding additional conversion).  Be advised, that ALAC and AAC files have the same extension .mp4  and the only way to distinguish between the is to read file info in I tunes or compare the size (AAC will be many time smaller).  On my phone and in my car I use AAC 256kbs VBR.

Once you have it in Itunes in one format, like ALAC, you can export album to another format like ACC.  It will perform conversion for you. Once you set export format in options it might be even possible to do this by dragging album icon to desired directory, but I'm not sure.  I use 256kbps for headphones. Same for car because I reuse the same files.

The best for you, IMHO, would be laptop with asynchronous USB D/A converter.  Do some research.  One inexpensive example might be Oppo HA-2 asynch USB headphone amp with line out, based on ESS Sabre 32-bit (wonderful sound), but you might like something less portable or better, if you're willing to spend more money (Oppo HA-2 is $300).  Connectors on the Oppo are 1/8"

https://www.oppodigital.com/headphone-amplifier-ha-2/