New Mac Mini and Pioneer Amp - Will Apple Lossless play?

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

I've recently bought a new Mac Mini which I've connected to my Pioneer SC-LX71 amp via the HDMI port that Apple finally included. The Mini (via iTunes) is going to be my media centre and I've got the uneviable task of ripping all my CDs to the hard disk in the next couple of weeks.

I've done my best to try and work out the most appropriate codec and bit rate to use, but.... I'll admit it, I'm no longer a 15yr old with an in-built understanding of what to do!

I know that using iTunes I'm limiting myself to WAV and Apple Lossless if I want the best quality (and maybe AIFF I guess), but I'm not sure if Apple Lossless will be recognised by my receiver. The network media player built into it accepts WAV and FLAC, but not Apple Lossless, but does anyone know if the DAC can deal with it if I go via the HDMI cable? Or am I limited to WAV files?

Cheers

 

[professorhat]

The receiver will play the tunes fine as the Mini Mac will output the music as PCM via the HDMI, the Apple iTunes software will decode it from Apple Lossless and then output it via the HDMI this way.

The network media player in the receiver is for when you are accessing files directly from a hard drive / NAS over Ethernet / wireless and it then decodes these formats within the receiver, so this is why it is limited to certain formats.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent, thanks Prof. So the Mac decodes the lossless files, outputs is as digital PCM, and it uses the DACs in the receiver to convert to an analogue signal?

Do I need to make any decisions about which sample rates/ bit rates to use? There's a thread on this site entitled "Mac Mini and 24/192 files", but I'm not sure it relates to what I'm going to do, I'll be ripping off CD, which as I understand it is limited to 16bit 44KHz. Presumably 24/192 files relate to downloaded files, and I guess even if I did have some of them I'd need a system capable of playing them.

 

[nij_1]

You are right about 24bit/192khz being related mainly to downloaded files, most studio digitally recorded music is in this format these days. It's then downsampled for red book cd. The good news is that if you download any of these files, your pioneer has a built in DAC capable of processing them at 24/192.

 

[professorhat]

Indeed, in terms of ripping your CDs, just set to Apple Lossless (and I'd recommend ticking the Use error correction when reading Audio CDs box too) and you're away.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys that's very helpful. I initially thought it was going to be quite easy, but sometimes I find with these forums the more you read the less you know, if you catch my drift!

Enjoying some crystal clear Mumford & Sons right now, with the receiver displaying PCM 96kHz!

I'm planning on ripping our Harry Potter audiobook collection at AAC rather than lossless, as I'm guessing there's not going to be any worthwhile benefit from a lossless Stephen Fry. Do you agree or have any other suggestions on how to import these types of files?

 

[chebby]

chipshopshippers:I'm planning on ripping our Harry Potter audiobook collection at AAC rather than lossless, as I'm guessing there's not going to be any worthwhile benefit from a lossless Stephen Fry. Do you agree or have any other suggestions on how to import these types of files?

Most of my iTunes is taken up with rips from my spoken word/drama/documentary CDs. I very carefully compared lossless and AAC 256k VBR with the BBC R4 Drama, George Smiley CDs I have been buying over the last year. I have found 256k is fine. It will be ample for someone just reading into a microphone. (Drama has a lot more information than just voice.)

256k VBR will adapt and so most of the time it will be less than 256K, but will have the extra 'headroom' (bit room?) if things get a bit 'busy'.

 

[Gozaradio]

chebby:
chipshopshippers:I'm planning on ripping our Harry Potter audiobook collection at AAC rather than lossless, as I'm guessing there's not going to be any worthwhile benefit from a lossless Stephen Fry. Do you agree or have any other suggestions on how to import these types of files?

Most of my iTunes is taken up with rips from my spoken word/drama/documentary CDs. I very carefully compared lossless and AAC 256k VBR with the BBC R4 Drama, George Smiley CDs I have been buying over the last year. I have found 256k is fine. It will be ample for someone just reading into a microphone. (Drama has a lot more information than just voice.)

256k VBR will adapt and so most of the time it will be less than 256K, but will have the extra 'headroom' (bit room?) if things get a bit 'busy'.

However, should you feel the urge to rip in any speech based content in lossless, you should find that it doesn't take up all that much room, owing to the way lossless compression works. An hour of speech material in lossless format will take up a lot less space than an hour of music, especially if it's mastered and compressed to be as 'loud' as possible (as most music is these days).