New adventures in Hi Fi, my exploration of computer audio

[Superdad]

Hmm.. I checked this out a while ago, but perhaps there are some things to revisit with regards to endianness.

 

I enjoyed the OP's link to the Postive Feedback column, but I think she (the PF writer) was wrong in one respect regarding file identification:

She stated that AIFF files retain the endianness (byte order) of the computer they were created (ripped on). But I just checked a bunch of files on my music storage drive that I know for certain have not been touched since they were ripped with my old G4 Mac mini. Per the PF article, those should be Big Endian and just show (in File>Get Info>Kind) as AIF; but (and this is now with the Intel i5 mini I use) they ALL show as AIF-C type, indicating that they are little-endian ordered.

 

Secondly, for conversion of downloaded FLAC files, I generally use MAX instead of XLD (I prefer the interface metadata editing). In Max's preferences one chooses the output format from among a huge range of options (there are actually two AIFF converters available, one from CoreAudio, the other from the libsndfile library). And what is odd is that the encoder settings for AIFF show 16,24,and 32 bit choices--all as BIG Endian. This on an Intel machine. Yet all of the FLAC>AIFF conversions I do result in files of AIF-C--which are supposedly LITTLE Endian.

Does anyone know what is going on here? And as an aside, Max's WAV options DO say Little Endian.

Can anyone give me a link to a utility which can definitively identify whether a file is Big or Little Endian? Sadly, such information is not offered by the MediaInfo utility which I use daily to determine if flacs are 16 or 24 bit (so I can set Max before I convert; yes, I know XLD does this automatically if set "same as source").

 

So I was ready and willing to make some Endian comparisons (figured I'd do a second rip of CDs in my collection which were originally ripped on my G4 system--but per above, that won't work).

 

 

As for WAV or AIFF sounding better than FLACs due to endianness, I'm not sold. Back when all I had was a 1.5gHz G4 mini with 1GB of RAM (and not able to use any "purity player" except Pure Music, and then not with memory pre-load), AIFFs absolutely sounded better than Apple Lossless (I demonstrated this to magazine editors at CES 2008). But since moving to an Intel mini w/8GB and A+, recent comparisons of realtime playback of AIFF and ALAC resulted in no discernible difference. And my system is much better now than back then (and most of you here know that I hear lots of differences between players and other elements).

 

All that said, I do endorse reduction of extraneous processes. It is hard to get OS X to really quiet down, but you would be surprised to look at the Activity Monitor window of my music computer. I have killed and deleted processes and files just up to the point where the system won't function. Finder is Quit when I play, as is iTunes, and I renice residual processes to low priority and pump up A+ to have most.

[goldsdad]

Can anyone give me a link to a utility which can definitively identify whether a file is Big or Little Endian?

 

Don't trust Finder - it may report both AIFF and AIFF-C as AIFF-C.

 

QuickTime Player's Movie Inspector will report the endianness of AIFF and AIF-C files.

 

The command-line utility afinfo will tell you whether a file is AIFF or AIFC (AIFF-C) and the endianness.

 

AIFF is always big-endian. AIFF-C is very often big-endian, too, but it will be little-endian if, and only if, SOWT pseudo-compression is specified in the COMM chunk of the file.

 

 

[Superdad]

Don't trust Finder - it may report both AIFF and AIFF-C as AIFF-C.

 

QuickTime Player's Movie Inspector will report the endianness of AIFF and AIF-C files.

 

The command-line utility afinfo will tell you whether a file is AIFF or AIFC (AIFF-C) and the endianness.

 

AIFF is always big-endian. AIFF-C is very often big-endian, too, but it will be little-endian if, and only if, SOWT pseudo-compression is specified in the COMM chunk of the file.

 

 

 

 

Okay, that is helpful, thank you. But I am still slightly confused. Looking at my music files with Quicktime Player's Movie Inspector, I find that all my AIFF files are Big Endian signed integer, regardless of whether I had originally ripped them from CDs on my old G4 or on my current Intel machine. Plus, all the FLAC files I converted to AIFF are also Big Endian (just as Max said they would be). Only my WAV files are Little Endian.

 

And just to be sure, I just now took an original FLAC file d/l and converter is to AIFF with XLD. Same result: Big Endian.

 

At the moment I'm not bothering to look at if the files are AIFF or AIF-C. I've seen a lot of both in my collection.

 

So if someone wants to show me a way to convert a FLAC to a Little Endian AIFF, I'll be glad to compare that against a Big Endian version (which I'd create within minutes on the same machine from the exact same FLAC source). But I'm not holding my breath to hear ANY differences--for the reasons stated in my prior post.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

Files can be stored as Flac or Aiff and converted to WAV just before listening (and then trashed). It takes only seconds with XLD ; think of it as brushing a LP...

[elcorso]

So if someone wants to show me a way to convert a FLAC to a Little Endian AIFF, I'll be glad to compare that against a Big Endian version (which I'd create within minutes on the same machine from the exact same FLAC source). But I'm not holding my breath to hear ANY differences--for the reasons stated in my prior post.

 

Alex,

 

If you read from A+ 'debug info' everything loaded (but DSD) in the playlist is transformed on the fly to Little Endian before load the memory.

 

I read in some other place Intel processors 'likes better' Little Endian, and, Apple is, on this days, moving secretly and gradually to Little Endian on his AIFF or AIFF-C, but I don't have any proof (or evidence) of this.

 

I'm sorry for this late reply, but until now I saw this thread.

 

Roch

[Superdad]

Alex,

 

If you read from A+ 'debug info' everything loaded (but DSD) in the playlist is transformed on the fly to Little Endian before load the memory.

 

Interesting Roch! If that is the case, then all the more reason to try to pre-convert some Big Endian AIFFs to Little Endian. I'd then listen to them through A+ to determine if it sounds better for A+ not to have to do the conversion realtime.

 

Anybody else want to chime in here? Any Mac utilities to convert Big to Little Endian AIFFs? It should be pretty simple as it is just reversing byte order.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

have you seen Jennifer Lopez ?... big end ians rule ! ;-)

[paul1970]

Any Mac utilities to convert Big to Little Endian AIFFs?

I'd be really surprised if there is because...

 

...It should be pretty simple as it is just reversing byte order.

Follow that thought.

[elcorso]

Anybody else want to chime in here? Any Mac utilities to convert Big to Little Endian AIFFs? It should be pretty simple as it is just reversing byte order.

 

It seems that only for Windows, "Wavelab":

 

Wavelab - Download

 

Roch