Do I need to re-rip?


I do NOT want to resurrect the question of which is the better format - Apple Lossless or WAV. My question is about the need to re-rip my music if I want to change formats. My cd library was saved as Apple Lossless. Appears that I can go into the iTunes "preferences" menu and change my files from lossless to WAV, after-the-fact. Are these new WAV files every bit as good as a new cd that I rip as WAV? In other words, do I need to re-rip every one of my cds to obtain a quality WAV file or can I just let iTunes make that conversion?
rockyboy
If it were my choice I would re rip everything. The reason is that iTunes is probably not the best ripping software you can use. You would be converting files that were ripped under less than ideal circumstances. I would do new rips directly to WAV with EAC or dbPoweramp. Why take a chance?

As far as converting from one format to another goes, I'm not sure if that will degrade SQ. I'll venture to say that, as with ripping, you'll definitely want to use the best software for the job and have it set up properly. But I really don't know for sure.
Zd is right. If you ripped everything with iTunes, then you should re-rip everything regardless of the format it was ripped to. If you are on Mac, use XLD. If PC, then use dbpoweramp.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
From my experience, comparing sound quality from CD's ripped in WAV versus these ripped in FLAC and then converted into WAV - I would stongly advise you to re-rip your CD collection in WAV. Don;t forget to use quality ripping software and...and then optimize it as well.

All The Best

Simon
Musica Pristina
Thanks for the advice. Guess I need to set aside some time to re-rip. Will use dbpoweramp and save as WAV. Is dbpoweramp free? And will dbpoweramp automatically download album art and tags or will I have to type in info?