flac, wave, mp4, iPod files????


I always convert flac files to mp4 so I can listen to them on my iPod. Is this necessary? My iTouch won't let me download flac. I would like to hear wave, flac as opposed to standard mp4. I want to hear the higher resolution.
dreadhead

Showing 2 responses by zanth

No problem! Glad I could be of some help. I'm waiting on an iPod upgrade (September is usually when the new ones are released). Rumors are that there will be a 250 GB Classic released, a nice 90 GB more than the current largest unit. I'll pick this up, buy the iTransport and send to my dac and myself and my wife will be very very pleased. In fact, I think she will be far more thrilled as she has her own iPod and can drop it into the main rig and just sit back and relax listening to whatever she has queued up.

The iPod/iTransport is a wonder combo when one already has a nice stand-alone dac. Ideally Apple would allow a perfect digital output right from the unit, but at least for now, we have Wadia providing something exceptional for us.
In terms of resolution, FLAC = WAVE = MP4 ALAC (Apple Lossless).

Wave is rather useless on an iPod. It is full size and can't support meta data without a lot of effort.

FLAC is a free lossless audio codec. It's free, so people love it! No lock in. Apple does not support FLAC because it supports its own lossless codec. ALAC will sound EXACTLY like the FLAC files if transcoded. A simple tool to do this is with dbpoweramp Grab this awesome software for relatively cheap and if you buy FLAC files online, transcode them to ALAC and dump them on your iPod all in a matter of seconds. Seriously, seconds.

Older iPods are able to play FLAC files by adding an open source operating system onto the unit and dual booting. It's called Rockbox and is quite a polished system but it chews up battery life and for most instances, is really only worthwhile if one wants to play file formats the iPod doesn't support. In that case, just use dbpoweramp to convert and be done with it.

As for getting the most out of one's iPod, the iPod, if housing ALAC files (ir AIFF or WAVE) will be an exceptional transport! Pick up Wadia's Ipod Transport and this doc BYPASSES the iPods internal dac and allows bitperfect digital signal to leave the iPod and get streamed to whatever stand alone DAC is in one's main system.