I'm thinking of ripping my CDs in AIFF, but would there be any problem with that down the line?

[bluesman]

8 hours ago, pionphil said:

If I ripped in FLAC I wouldn't be able to play it on iPhones.

You can play FLACs on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 11 (2017) or later.  I think FLAC is a more usable and versatile format than AIFF.  It's now supported by Apple / Mac, Android, and Windows.  FLACs are significantly smaller files than the same material ripped to AIFF because FLACs are compressed and AIFFs are not.  Some believe that AIFF sounds better, although most (including me) do not agree - each should become an identical PCM bitstream when played with proper software.  

 

One potentially important caveat you'll read about is that FLACs are said to degrade in SQ if edited after ripping.  I don't know, as I've never found a reason to do this.  I've ripped a few thousand CDs and records to FLACs and am very pleased with the format.  If I'm converting live recordings I've made as wavs, I do all the editing in the wav format before ripping.  I also do this for vinyl rips.

 

So I recommend ripping to FLACs. There are 8 compression levels, with 5 being the default for most convertors.  The higher levels mean more compression (still lossless, but done with different algorithms) into smaller files.  Higher levels of compression mean more work for the processor when playing the files but are otherwise transparent (except for smaller file size). I've always used 5, as I hear no SQ differences using lower levels.

 

I store all album art that's not automatically retrieved from the web by my players as jpegs in the album folders, e.g. front.jpg, back,jpg etc. With some players, you can also store them all in a separate folder called "covers" or whatever you like - but you then have to name them for their source albums, so the player can find and associate them with the album you're playing.

[bluesman]

2 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

the problem seems to be that iTunes/Apple Music do not still (and never will, as it is said almost everywhere ) manage flac files therefore it is impossible to create playlists in iTunes and synchronize them with iPhone.

True enough - but the OP specifically said that...

 

12 hours ago, pionphil said:

...[i]f I ripped in FLAC I wouldn't be able to play it on iPhones.

And that’s not correct.

[bluesman]

1 hour ago, stefano_mbp said:

@bluesman but it seems clear that he want to use iTunes... this is the constraint 

I could be wrong.  But his statement that he "...wouldn't be able to play [FLACs] on iPhones" suggests to me that he believes there's simply no way to do so with any player.

 

I hope that the advantages of FLAC over AIFF might move him from iTunes to a more versatile player.  For example, VLC is a wonderful player for all file types on all platforms.  Paid apps like Golden Ear & FLAC Player are also great.  And he can use programs like Foobar2000 or JRiver Media Center to stream his FLACs from a home computer to his iPhone over the internet, so he won't even have to load them all into the phone.

 

But if he truly won't leave iTunes, he has limited options for better sound.  Those who want lossless files but are wedded to iTunes are stuck with Apple-recognized files (AIFF & ALAC). If his goal is better SQ from an iPhone with music files smaller than AIFFs (which are basically wavs in a container), he'll have to choose between iTunes / ALAC and other players / platforms.

[bluesman]

On 9/23/2020 at 10:50 PM, pionphil said:

Maybe I'll try playing around with VLC and see how I like it to decide whether to rip in AIFF or FLAC. 

As I said in an earlier post, VLC is a great program.  It works well, sounds great, and will play anything you can throw at it. It even converts video sound tracks to audio files in the formats we use.  If you choose FLAC, it lets you choose the compression level (I use the default 5 anyway). 

 

The library management and display functions are no match for JRMC, Roon et al.  But you won’t be admiring album art or reading liner notes on your phone.  Overall, it’s excellent.

[bluesman]

On 9/24/2020 at 12:28 AM, pionphil said:

I just checked out VLC but there doesn't seem to be an option to make music playlists like you can in iTunes.

VLC does playlists just fine.  Here’s a link to the vlchelp page on it.

[bluesman]

On 9/28/2020 at 11:59 AM, pionphil said:

How smaller is ALAC compared to AIFF?

AIFF and wav files of the same material differ in size only by about 30 bytes (in the header).  ALAC files are about 55% the size of wav files from which they’re converted.  So ALACs are also about 55% the size of AIFFs from which they’re converted.

 

FWIW, a FLAC will be about 5% smaller than the same material as an ALAC with the same resolution & word size.