Apple Lossless vs iTunes Plus

OMG Naschbac...

I'd like to point out for the sake of clarity that you are experiencing some kind of placebo effect here. It is mathematically impossible that....

You've been captured TOO!

This is some scary sh%t going on here! As if it wasn't enough that Placebos had attacked myself, a highly respected engineer/audio electronics manufacturer and an esteemed enthusiast with great ears to convince the three of us that one codec actually sounds better - or at least different - than another codec. Now Placebos have infiltrated and are attacking mathematics!!!

I fear this is worse than the dark day of Bill Murray's "...Run For Your Life! Lobster Attack!!!"

Desperate Urgency,
Robert
RSAD

Good thought about the New Math Jax2 but....

To me seems the issue is more likely about Placebos. That's what's really freaking me out. It's really become quite an insidious phenomena.

I watched House three nights ago and it dealt with this very infection. It was inevitably an episode with a rare sad ending for House. Dr. House went through all his usual drama and suspense with the hospital staff and the patient which took up most of the episode. In a climatic end when Dr. House finally got the diagnosis correct - patient infected with a Placebo - it was too late. The patient died from a Placebo infection. HELLO? - I think a message was sent! If House missed this I think that should serve as a wake up call for all of us!

I was talking with an enthusiast out East last week. He's part of a rather large Audio Club out there. In March they had about 30 members gathered for their monthly meet and they each did a 'Paint By Numbers' painting together. Surely if mathematics could solely be used to determine what they hear in their playback systems and that, based on identical numbers, there would be no audible difference, a 'Paint By Numbers' test would illustrate and validate that. That was indeed the assumption most of the guys at the meet had. The result? Even though all the 'Paint By Numbers' sets were identical numerically and in every other respect, there were substantial differences between the finished paintings! Most of the guys were totally and absolutely freaked! What's sad is some still desperately denied the differences.

My conclusion, and I hope others begin to see this too, is that Placebo infections are indeed more rampant and insidious than I or anyone else thought.

Let alone the other areas of our lives, in this hobby, whether we're lowly and uneducated or highly esteemed for our double E degree education, whether we use our ears or whether we use mathematics to determine what we hear, no one is immune to attack. It seems apparent that we're all susceptible to some strain of Placebo infection - especially with Spring just around the corner.

Please take URGENT HEED!

Robert
RSAD

Hey Naschbac.

My personal results and conclusions came from taking several CDs and ripping selected songs first to Apple Lossless and then taking the same CDs and selected songs and ripping to AIFF. Two native files for each song. I would have preferred there to be no audible differences because Apple Lossless definitely takes up less space than AIFF. Still, AIFF sounded better to me in important ways.

System context:
iTunes/Mac Mini w/SSHD
Ultra Fi Musicstream DAC
Slagle Autoformers for line control
Pair of modified Pass Aleph 3 amps
Sason Ltd/Si Loudspeakers
All cabling: RSAD stuff

So, that's that. I'm okay with whatever you choose to think about me or my conclusions but I'm certain I'm not delusional.

Here's what I take exception to: The dogged attitude that parades as god on a stick to tell others what they can or can't hear. As if the universe should revolve around them and their adeptness for (in this case...) interpreting numbers.

Like it or not, here we are in 2009 with all our 'advanced science' and while it's certainly a useful tool that I personally am grateful for, it's still not the be all end all some of us wished it would be.

If for someone numbers and measurements are the end of the road for them and they don't perceives differences in certain or all areas of playback, that's fine really. But don't play savior and proclaim to all anyone else who doesn't want to ride in the same boat has been Placebo'd. Bad form Hook.

Cheers!

Robert
RSAD

Hey Marco.

Would really like to explore something different than iTunes. I'm not a brainiac with some of this stuff and I've not had time to fully investigate ripping or playback options. Does Apple's latest OS support EAC or dbPoweramp? While I think the Mac Mini w/ latest version of iTunes is very good the one thing I don't like is it seems I'm kinda locked out by Apple to a lot of ripping and/or playback options. Am I correct here?

Cheers Marco!

Robert
RSAD