I'm with cw in the sense that if you are going to take the time to rip, you might as well rip in a format you can use in a home system, since I think things are irreversibly headed that direction. I'll differ in that I like taking my little iPod nano, and using AAC doesn't bother me in that context--just for biking, airplanes, and skiing. My solution is maintaining a pair of libraries, one in Apple Lossless for home use, and one in AAC for iPod use. You can ask iTunes to downconvert whatever format you normally use into AAC on the fly when it syncs to the iPod, but that can take a looooong time. Easier to just maintain dual libraries in my book.
Going over to the Dark Side?
Oh no! So, I finally succumbed to temptation yesterday and got the new 30GB iPod. When I got it, I figured I would store all my songs in .WAV or Apple lossless. Yesterday I spent 6 hours choosing songs from a variety of disks and loading them into iTunes via Apple lossless. Sounded great. But now I'm getting greedy. I think about all the CDs I have (over 1000 easily), and the fact that the iPod would be used for listening while skiing, flying, or in the car, none of which is an excellent listening environment. I already have a reference music system, and at home I'll be listening mainly to vinyl, with the occasional foray into CDs. Now I'm thinking that I could easily triple or quadruple my storage by using the highest AAC setting (320kBS) instead of Apple lossless for my iPod and store a lot more songs.
tonight I ripped a version of a song in Apple lossless and in AAC. I keep listening back and forth through my powered studio monitors. There is a difference, but it seems slight. Then I think of the tiny earbuds, the listening environment, and I hear the siren song of the dark side of lossy compression calling. Oh no!! Run away!!!
Has anyone else faced this dilema, and what was your solution?
tonight I ripped a version of a song in Apple lossless and in AAC. I keep listening back and forth through my powered studio monitors. There is a difference, but it seems slight. Then I think of the tiny earbuds, the listening environment, and I hear the siren song of the dark side of lossy compression calling. Oh no!! Run away!!!
Has anyone else faced this dilema, and what was your solution?
Showing 4 responses by edesilva
For those thinking of external drives, I just ran across this URL--haven't used it, but the theory sounds good and it may quiet down your environment: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/smartdrive.html |
Ckorody is spot on as far as my understanding goes... And, to your last point, the bits going over spdif are just bits--the level is going to be determined by your DAC's output, regardless of the input. (Unless, of course, you have something fiddling with gain in the digital domain like kmixer--you don't want that). |