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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 11, 2010 13:17:40 GMT -5
Apple Lossless is part of the libavcodec library, so while not officially "open" anything that includes the library (VLC, MPlayer, etc.) will support it. Apple has never tried to stop anyone from using the reverse-engineered code. Not sure if the same is true for WMA Lossless. Just ripped one cd and it took about 10 minutes..... I played it back thru my little Bose speakers on my iMac and it was pretty much the same as the AAC version....... Little speakers though......
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jlafrenz
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Post by jlafrenz on Jan 11, 2010 13:29:11 GMT -5
I have some MP3's that actually sound pretty good and you my find that you have some decent rips too. As a whole though, FLAC is way better on most songs. There are some who state they can't tell a difference.
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DYohn
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Post by DYohn on Jan 11, 2010 13:42:43 GMT -5
I use iTunes and the Apple Lossless codec and find it to sound very good indeed.
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MikeWI
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Post by MikeWI on Jan 11, 2010 14:21:03 GMT -5
Apple Lossless is part of the libavcodec library, so while not officially "open" anything that includes the library (VLC, MPlayer, etc.) will support it. Apple has never tried to stop anyone from using the reverse-engineered code. Not sure if the same is true for WMA Lossless. Just ripped one cd and it took about 10 minutes..... I played it back thru my little Bose speakers on my iMac and it was pretty much the same as the AAC version....... Little speakers though...... What are the frequency response characteristics (+/- 3 dB) of your BOSE speakers? Mike
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Post by littlesaint on Jan 11, 2010 15:03:11 GMT -5
Apple Lossless is part of the libavcodec library, so while not officially "open" anything that includes the library (VLC, MPlayer, etc.) will support it. Apple has never tried to stop anyone from using the reverse-engineered code. Not sure if the same is true for WMA Lossless. Just ripped one cd and it took about 10 minutes..... I played it back thru my little Bose speakers on my iMac and it was pretty much the same as the AAC version....... Little speakers though...... AAC encoding can be quite good. Particularly, if you use the iTunes Plus encoding (256, constrained VBR), or better yet, True VBR encoding using XLD. If your playback device is portable or a PC speaker type setup, I don't think lossless rips are really necessary. I use AAC for my MacBook and iPhone to conserve space. I do rip everything as lossless initially for archiving in case I ever want to re-burn the CD, or convert to a different format.
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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 11, 2010 16:44:54 GMT -5
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Post by dreadpiratemarc on Jan 11, 2010 19:31:53 GMT -5
Those aren't computer speakers. These are computer speakers! This is the desktop I'm using right now.
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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 11, 2010 21:04:54 GMT -5
Those aren't computer speakers. These are computer speakers! This is the desktop I'm using right now. Can you say "overkill"...... I was in a guy's office about a year ago and he had a 42" plasma on his desk for a monitor..... Sheesh
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MikeWI
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Post by MikeWI on Jan 11, 2010 21:29:35 GMT -5
I was just pointing out that trying determine the sonic differences of lossy vs. lossless compression with BOSE speakers is not a good use of time. Mike
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Post by RayoVac on Jan 11, 2010 23:47:29 GMT -5
If you rip in iTunes at the least compression setting - is it lossless? As long as your Preferences/Import Settings in iTunes are set to "Apple Lossless Encoder"... it will be lossless. MP3, AAC and others will be Lossy... no matter what compression setting you choose. Others can jump in and correct but of the popular formats I am pretty sure FLAC, ALAC and WAV are the LossLess formats of choice (ALAC being Apple Lossless Encoder). FLAC is not natively supported in iTunes. I rip everything ALAC in iTunes or with sBooth's Rip sbooth.org/Rip/. Mainly because we have iPods and I have Sonos. I store all the data on a NAS (TimeCapsule) and the Sonos reads the ALAC no problems. Oh yeah.. and I am a Mac user now. I started with FLAC when I used PCs. Media Monkey for mgt. and dbpoweramp for ripping. But once we got iPods and Macs... iTunes just became MUCH easier. But... could not easily do FLAC any more... so I converted it all to ALAC... and now any new ripping is as I stated above. If you are a PC user. EAC and dbpoweramp are probably two of the best for ripping. MediaMonkey is not bad for Managing the library. Not near as easy as just using iTunes to do it all though.
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Post by agehring on Jan 12, 2010 0:08:28 GMT -5
I was in a guy's office about a year ago and he had a 42" plasma on his desk for a monitor..... Maybe a eye thing, We have a individual that uses a large "TV" for a monitor due to eyesight...
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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 12, 2010 9:10:22 GMT -5
I was in a guy's office about a year ago and he had a 42" plasma on his desk for a monitor..... Maybe a eye thing, We have a individual that uses a large "TV" for a monitor due to eyesight... Nope, pure "bling". He had a diamond pinky ring as well....
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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 12, 2010 9:12:34 GMT -5
I was just pointing out that trying determine the sonic differences of lossy vs. lossless compression with BOSE speakers is not a good use of time. Mike Time..... It took about one minute. It's not like we send too much time hanging around in here...
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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 13, 2010 8:22:57 GMT -5
For now, I'm gonna rip all my jazz and classical into apple lossless. Save the the rest for another day.
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ratmice
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Post by ratmice on Jan 13, 2010 8:34:27 GMT -5
Just a quick note for the Mac people. There is a program (Airfoil) that allows you to output ANY audio playing on your Mac to an Airport (via AirTunes). So you can use any encoding, with a corresponding player, and get the results on your HT. I am currently using FLAC and playing it via Play. Works great. As a bonus airfoil comes with a plug-in that will synchronize to multiple airports, let's you have unlimited zones - pretty neat.
disclaimer: I have nothing to do with this company, just a happy customer.
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Post by audiodragon on Jan 13, 2010 10:44:19 GMT -5
A good lossy format like high bit rate AAC or high bit rate mp3 can sound nearly as good or as good as a CD, especially on a computer speakers, portable audio players, car stereos, and situations that don't lend themselves to detailed listening. But it is best to archive in a lossless format and then use your favorite flaver of program to create the lossy files to be used on the portable device. I am currently using EAC to rip my CDs to FLAC and store them on an external HD. For the stuff I want to put on my portable Sansa Fuze, I use LAME XP to compress the FLAC file to a variable bit rate mp3 with a minimum of 192Kb/s. I store all the mp3s in a seperate folder on my HD. By the way, the Sansa Fuze is a fantastic audio player, and is one of the few that inculde a micro SD slot. It is simple and cheap to make my 4GB Fuze into a 12GB or 20GB Fuze. And I can almost completely change out my library in a couple minutes For home use, I use PS3 media server to stream them to my PS3 which feeds my LMC-1 via Toslink. My biggest gripe is that this does not work gapless, with no predicted way to ever make it gapless. Come on Sony, the mighty cell processor can't stream FLAC gapless? So I am looking at other streaming solutions. My current favorite option is a Squeezebox, but if you have more than one zone synchronized, it won't do gapless either. I will probably only use one zone so it may work. The Sonos looks nice but I don't have that kind of $$$$$.
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mftech
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Post by mftech on Jan 13, 2010 11:43:24 GMT -5
I ripped my whole collection in Flac. Flac is robust and more universal than Alac.
I used two Squeezebox SB3, Rio Karma (with CF 32g card) and a Sansa player, both portable player could decode Flac perfectly. I was able to interface my professional Mykerinos Audio Card with CUE 1.7 software to playback Flac files.
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Post by RayoVac on Jan 13, 2010 19:04:26 GMT -5
Lossless is lossless. There is no advantage to FLAC over ALAC other then... yes... it certainly is more universal whereas ALAC is Apple proprietary. I am already in bed with Apple pretty hot and heavy, so ALAC works for me and iTunes is a breeze.
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Post by strindl on Jan 13, 2010 22:14:23 GMT -5
10 minutes to rip a cd is kinda pokey. Mine take about 60 or 70 seconds per CD. How fast is your computer?
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jlafrenz
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Post by jlafrenz on Jan 13, 2010 22:24:44 GMT -5
10 minutes to rip a cd is kinda pokey. Mine take about 60 or 70 seconds per CD. How fast is your computer? It can also vary depending on what compression level it is set on. Things with AccurateRip will also take longer because you can set the number of passes the software makes.
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