Is there an obvious audible difference between Apple Lossless, WAV and AIFF? I haven't compared. From what I read Apple Lossless seemed good enough. There's plenty of threads on this subject if you do a search. Here's an interesting one I've been involved with lately. Check out my friend, Peter's contribution around midway through the thread. |
I'm a MAC. 10+ years of Windows was torture enough. ;-) I'll have to try moving my iTunes library to an external drive. I've been meaning too. I would expect the iTunes Plus music to be sourced from either the original or a good 1st gen digital recording. One [audiophile] would expect that and it makes the most sense. But then again, we are talking about an industry who thinks MP3 is fine. I now recall that I actually did import a CD as ALAC, WAV, and AIFF. It was brief, but I did not hear enough difference to justify more of my drive being consumed . I'll have to do some more comparisons sometime since my system has changed since. |
I realized one important detail about storing iTunes on an external drive; it would require another external drive for backup. As it is now, I need a minimum of two drives; one for SuperDuper! (bootable) backup, and one for Time Machine. I could get one large drive and partition for those two BU plans, and have another one dedicated for iTunes, but again, the need for an iTunes BU drive, and the possibility of losing both the other BU plans if the partitioned drive failed. Without a iTunes BU, you're toast if that drive fails. And right now I have a BU of it. Imagine having to rip 100's of CD's all over again. My 1 TB main drive is fine for now. Plenty of room to spare with Apple Lossless |
Addendum: The LaCie 2big Triple was a great RAID unit, but too noisy for the desktop, fan runs continuously, 'Auto' switch did nothing (wouldn't sleep), and the one-push-button on the front is 2big and 2bright. It was well built though. Heavy [duty] metal enclosure and drive trays. It's hard finding the perfect solution (4 drives; 2 for RAID 1 / 2 for JBOD separate access). Looking at CalDigit VR instead. More $$ but more features/expandable/upgradable. |
