I Need To Convert For iTunes

[Rounder44]

Howdy,

 

I generally rip CDs to FLAC and mostly play at home BUT I'll be traveling extensively and want a format I can play via iTunes on my iPhone. I have VOX but the interface is too clunky and seems to double and triple files.

 

I loathe iTunes but fear it will be the simplest way.... Regardless of my decision what would be the best format to convert to? I have dBpoweramp to do the job and can batch do it.

 

Size not a concern I just want best sound.

 

I imagine Apple Lossless...

 

Thanks!

[new_media]

I personally use ALAC, but a lot of people will also recommend AIFF. It's a non-compressed format and just as taggable/compatible as ALAC.

 

I use ALAC on an old iPhone to playback lossless over CarPlay and with the Onkyo HF Player app and a DragonFly Red for portable listening.

[Richard Dale]

1 hour ago, Rounder44 said:

Howdy,

 

I generally rip CDs to FLAC and mostly play at home BUT I'll be traveling extensively and want a format I can play via iTunes on my iPhone. I have VOX but the interface is too clunky and seems to double and triple files.

 

I loathe iTunes but fear it will be the simplest way.... Regardless of my decision what would be the best format to convert to? I have dBpoweramp to do the job and can batch do it.

 

Size not a concern I just want best sound.

 

I imagine Apple Lossless...

 

Thanks!

I thought Apple’s music player on the iPhone now plays FLAC. I use the Onkyo HF Music player on iPod Touch and that certainly plays FLAC as well as Hi Res formats.

[lucretius]

47 minutes ago, new_media said:

I personally use ALAC, but a lot of people will also recommend AIFF. It's a non-compressed format and just as taggable/compatible as ALAC.

 

I use ALAC on an old iPhone to playback lossless over CarPlay and with the Onkyo HF Player app and a DragonFly Red for portable listening.

 

ALAC is the way to go in this case.  However, one should avoid hi-rez; ALAC technically permits it but can be a problem with iTunes and iPhones -- therefore, hi-rez should be down-sampled. 

 

 

 

[new_media]

I keep all of my files at their native sampling frequency and bit depth, converting to ALAC with either XLD or Max.

 

I've never had a problem with iTunes or my iPhone playing back high-res files. They are automatically downsampled when I use CarPlay; I assume a limitation of the car's DAC.

[Bikutoru]

2 hours ago, lucretius said:

 

ALAC is the way to go in this case.  However, one should avoid hi-rez; ALAC technically permits it but can be a problem with iTunes and iPhones -- therefore, hi-rez should be down-sampled. 

 

 

 

I have plenty of ALAC hi-rez and it is just fine, no reason to avoid it, iPhone plays them just fine too. I love, no adore iTunes, apple music is my wildest dream that came through, it is not perfect, what is? Never understood haters.

[lucretius]

5 hours ago, new_media said:

I keep all of my files at their native sampling frequency and bit depth, converting to ALAC with either XLD or Max.

 

I've never had a problem with iTunes or my iPhone playing back high-res files. They are automatically downsampled when I use CarPlay; I assume a limitation of the car's DAC.

 

Is this (compatibility with hi rez) something new?  E.g. see here https://www.whathifi.com/us/advice/how-to-play-hi-res-music-your-iphone-0 where they point to some issues. I've experienced (in the past) a problem playing a hi-res ALAC file on my iPad -- I don't use the iPad much so I don't know if the situation has been rectified in more recent times..

[AnotherSpin]

You can convert your music files to any format with XLD and play them in iphone with Onkyo HF app. You can add files/albums to Onkyo through iTunes adding files routine.

[kelvinwsy]

I was surprised to find my new downloads from Itunes Store are M4A files. And JRiver MC26 can import Itunes direcly into its song list. Then I use the Convert function and convert the M4A files 16bit 44.1khz. Converts to nice Uncompressed WAV files at 16bit 44.1kHz. I designate as HQPlayer 3 file type. And then it can load onto my DAP, my Iphone using the Hiby Music App, my my main system etc.

 

[Richard Dale]

36 minutes ago, kelvinwsy said:

I was surprised to find my new downloads from Itunes Store are M4A files. And JRiver MC26 can import Itunes direcly into its song list. Then I use the Convert function and convert the M4A files 16bit 44.1khz. Converts to nice Uncompressed WAV files at 16bit 44.1kHz. I designate as HQPlayer 3 file type. And then it can load onto my DAP, my Iphone using the Hiby Music App, my my main system etc.

 

If you are starting with lossy AAC 320 Kbps bit rate compression, all you are doing by converting them to WAV files is making the files bigger. You can’t get the missing resolution back.

[kelvinwsy]

That's true! Just getting the format to be playable on non Apple devices

[Rounder44]

Thanks everyone!

 

As I started to experiment and drop some albums in iTunes/Music I was reminded why I abandoned iTunes...it's a nightmare! It's iCloud nonsense killed me last time as it takes ALL your music and adds it to the cloud which in and of itself is fine BUT if you're traveling with limited cellular and turn it off it erases all your local files!

 

I went back to Vox which accepts the FLAC and by starting all over seems to be working properly! No more duplicates so far!

 

Thanks!

[new_media]

19 hours ago, lucretius said:

 

Is this (compatibility with hi rez) something new?  E.g. see here https://www.whathifi.com/us/advice/how-to-play-hi-res-music-your-iphone-0 where they point to some issues. I've experienced (in the past) a problem playing a hi-res ALAC file on my iPad -- I don't use the iPad much so I don't know if the situation has been rectified in more recent times..

 

Everything up through 24/96 can be synced onto an iPhone or iPad using iTunes and will play back at native resolution through the DragonFly.

 

iTunes will not transfer 24/192 and above to the iPhone, so I have to sideload those files into the Onkyo app.

[kelvinwsy]

I use Jriver MC26 .. The itunes ALAC files to WAV then upsampled to DSD256/ASDM7EC is some of the best music I 've heard on my system

[kelvinwsy]

Of course I mean using Hqplayer 4.0