Need to clarify some questions

[flacphile]

Hi guys and girls

 

Firstly I just want to say this site rocks I have learnt alot within a few days and lots of late night reading. I have a few questions I like to clarify.

 

1. People on this forum say they can hear the differnce between AIFF files and FLAC files why is that when the two files are uncomppresed audio?

 

2. To get bit perfect sound do I have to rip my music collection in AIFF format or can I get the same bit perfect sound with FLAC files? assuming I'm using a media player that supports bit perfect output and a DAC

 

So far I've been ripping a cd in AIFF format to test the difference in media players in the sense of tagging and compatibility, so far iTunes is the best player for AIFF (no surprises there) playback as foobar2k will play the file but doesn't support the tag reading format same goes for Songbird. I have tried searching for the internet for a decent AIFF tagger but couldn't find one, again had to go back to iTunes to fully tag the file correctly. So far I'm leaning towards FLAC encoding unless someone can give me a really good reason why I should stick to AIIFF encoding.

 

[Al]

I cant tell a difference (tho i have not tried exhaustively). There are those here who will say they can hear a difference, but the theory says they can't (but to each their own, and theory isnt everything i guess).

 

So id say if your preference is FLAC, that shouldnt pose any real problems if you use a media player that plays nicely with FLACs.

 

I'll have to leave the rest to others I'm afraid, sorry.

 

[cfmsp]

 

 

Some possible reasons to stick to AIFF versus FLAC:

 

FLAC (or other lossless formats) require on-the-fly decoding by the computer's processor. At least one CA member has posted that in his case this extra processing impacted the quality of sound.

 

AIFF files (as you've noted) are more easily supported with regards to metadata/tagging than are FLAC files, especially using iTunes.

 

The choice of FLAC versus AIFF is more about convenience and file storage requirements than sound quality.

 

I use AIFF because disk drives are relatively cheap, and getting cheaper. I don't use Apple's lossless (which has the same advantages over FLAC as AIFF with regards to metadata/tagging) for home audio reproduction because the only advantage I can see (or could see at the time) was file size.

 

I've since been reminded that AirTunes (software utilized by Airport Express for music transmission) compresses to ALAC (Apple lossless) on the fly before transmission if sources files are AIFF, so that could be a theoretical consideration if the majority of your listening is via Airport Express.

 

I have a mixture of AIFF, Apple lossless and LAME-encoded VBR compressed files for listening via ipod/iphone.

 

 

enjoy

clay

 

 

 

 

 

[flacphile]

FLAC (or other lossless formats) require on-the-fly decoding by the computer's processor. At least one CA member has posted that in his case this extra processing impacted the quality of sound.

 

This makes sence then it's more the decoding of the file you might hear audiable artifacts nor the encoding/type of format ie. AIFF, FLAC

 

As far as AIFF tagging does enyone know if there is a good program that can do mass tagging for win or mac? I currently use mp3tag for windows and it doesn't support AIFF files nor will the developers include support for this format which is to bad because I realy like the software.

 

File size doesn't realy matter to me as you metioned before clay, hard disk drives are relatively cheap now days.