Hi Sabahattin, Thank you so much for such a detailed description of the choices in converting my cds in iTunes. You are very kind.
May I ask, since I've so far been importing my cds into iTunes using the default AAC encoder, is there a way of converting the already imported music in this way into a better quality encoded files? I sometimes feel when listening to the music I have imported that the quality is not as good as I would expect. I subscribe to iTunes match by the way so I don't know whether it has any bearing on our discussion. I mostly listen to my music via iTunes and iPhone and sometimes stream it to an external Bose speaker via airport express. Many thanks Andrew > On 25 Oct 2015, at 09:38, Sabahattin Gucukoglu <listse...@me.com> wrote: > > It depends on what you want to do with your files. Playback generally > requires a widely-supported format, whilst editing will require larger, > original files. Since iTunes generally rips CDs for playback, that’s probably > what you want to do. > > MP3 produces smaller files that are extremely compatible with ubiquitous > player devices. However, the format is not best-in-class, and the iTunes > encoder is a bit rubbish, so it’s best if possible to use other software to > rip your CDs to MP3. > > Wave and AIFF files are original sound samples. They are very, very large, > but they are also compatible. There is no loss in quality, unlike MP3. Wave > is generally the more common. > > AAC is a standard for encoding audio that is largely supported by software > and hardware, but is still less compatible than MP3. The encoding is > superior to MP3. If you have the choice, use AAC. Apple devices all > understand this format, and it is the default format for iTunes. Like MP3, > the format is lossy; there is loss of information, in theory to a degree that > is not noticeable at a suitable bitrate. The iTunes AAC implementation is > superior to the MP3 implementation. > > Apple Lossless is very specific to Apple. There is no loss of quality, and > the file format is designed to save space over wave files, but there is > almost no support among devices not Apple. Software implementations do > exist, though, so conversion from this format to other formats for other uses > is entirely possible. I use this format for playback from my computer to > high-quality headphones, but the files are too large for my iPhone, so I use > iTunes to convert to 256Kb AAC for listening on the go. > > Summary: probably you want 256Kb AAC, unless you have hi-fi gear, in which > case I recommend Apple Lossless. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara > Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
