2. pc-audio
  3. 1207247474

PC wav lossless vs MAC apple lossless

Hi there. I am still trying to figure out all of the permutations of this PC Server thing. I am experimenting with many alternatives and variables before I settle on what I will do with my 500 CD collection. I dont want to rip (import) these CD's more than once!

I have not been that happy experimenting with my new MAC and apple lossless. Frankly, even with all the changes I have made and tweaked - I can clearly hear that the music is superior through my inexpensive Panasonic CD player. (I run both the CD player and the computer through a Musical Fidelity X-DAX v8)

I have been using Apple lossless because that seems to be the consensus as the best route, from those on this site. However, perhaps it is just because I am used to Windows Media Player - but I find WMP to be a better interface for managing the music - so now I am thinking to keep the files on a PC instead and try using WAV lossless on my PC.

Question 1 -- I have heard that there are sound problems with Windows XP that were resolved in Windows Vista. Is this true ? Something about a kernel? I have XP now but would upgrade to Vista if it made a difference. I play the music out via the USB connection.

Question 2 -- Is there any known difference between saving these files in WAV format vs. Apple lossless ?

Question 3 -- Given that the consensus has always seemed to be MAC and apple lossless -- for my understanding, why is this superior to PC and WAV?

Thanks guys !
Mark
markny

Showing 1 response by sufentanil

sufentanil's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
sufentanil
782 posts
 
WAV and Apple Lossless basically play identially, but Apple Lossless (and any modern lossless format, such as FLAC) has 2 major advantages over WAV:

1) Standardized tags (the comments embedded in the file that tell what the name of the song is, the artist, composer, etc). Don't underestimate their value, especially when you're using a Squeezebox or something and want to have it select a certain type of music by some criteria.

2) Smaller files. (Most lossless formats use about half of the space of a WAV file.)

I personally use FLAC since it's an open source format that's supported outside of iTunes, but iTunes/iPod have such a market share that I doubt this is really a major downside to Apple lossless.

Michael
More to discover