LP to Apple Lossless conversion

I use Amadeus Pro. It costs forty dollars.

http://www.hairersoft.com/Welcome.html

You can't save directly into Apple Lossless with Amadeus but you can save in AIFF and then import into iTunes with the Apple Lossless setting.

There ought to be an AppleScript on the Web somewhere to do this as a batch but if so, I'm afraid I don't know where it is.

Is AIFF a lossless format (i.e. contains all the original bits as in a WAV or Apple Lossless file)?

How does one get the software (be it Amadeus Pro or Audacity or ...) to recognize / pick up the digital data stream coming in via Firewire on a Mac? Or, does Amadeus take the analog input and do the analog to digital conversion?

Those of you who've done such vinyl to digital conversions ON A MAC: is there any benefit to doing such an A/D conversion via software vs. hardware?
Thanks.

Right. Forgot to mention the external converter I use. Humble apologies. However you have one, don't you, Kocsis? The Canopus unit?

Radii, I am using a M-Audio Audiophile USB myself. It converts analog to digital and sends it to the USB input. Amadeus records directly from that. You just select the Record menu item. Once the recording is done, it can be saved in a good many formats.

AIFF is lossless and uncompressed.

I once tried doing the conversion in software, using my old PowerMac 7600 and SoundEdit 16. The result was horrible, I'm sorry to say. Nasty highs, digital artifacts. Perhaps more recent software does better, but because everyone does say to use an external sound "card" if possible, somehow I doubt it.

If I were seriously recording the best LPs in my collection to CD, I would want a better converter than the M-Audio, something like an Apogee Rosetta 200. For now, though, what I have does a surprisingly good job. The result is better than a great many commercial CDs.