What's Wrong with iTunes re SQ?

[Ralf11]

What is the issue or issues with iTunes in terms of sound quality?

 

I ask because I see a lot of claims for products that "improve" it or act in place of it...

[wgscott]

Nothing terrible, really.

 

The primary problem is that iTunes will resample your music at whatever sampling frequency is set in Audio MIDI setup, and it won't change the sample frequency to match that of your music collection. This may or may not be inaudible. In general, it will not guarantee bit-perfect playback, which many people (especially here) worry about.

 

If everything you have is 44.1 kHz, then you can just set it to that and never worry again.

 

Other software will instead change its output automatically to match the sampling frequency of each track you play, so that it will maintain bit perfect playback regardless of the input sampling frequency.

 

Some of the other players offer additional features that may enhance sound quality or at least make the playback process more robust and immune to degradation from competing demands of the system. These include memory playback, direct, integer and "hog" mode, and so on.

 

Also: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/wgscott/absolute-beginners-guide-using-apples-os-x-computer-audio-easy-way-642/

[Ralf11]

Thanks much - everything on my mac mini is ripped redbook CDs with possibly a few SACDs (tho I don't know if ITunes just ripped the redbook files from the SACDs or what...)

 

There is another setting besides the 44.1 kHz and mine is set to 2 channel, 24 bit Integer.

 

I see there are 4 options, one of which is floating point. What is the best setting for those?