What is the best way to get the best quality sound onto the current latest generation of Ipods? I am currently buying the CD placing it into my Imac then once the nessage comes up on itunes i get the tracks from the CD to my Itunes Library, is it possible to get better quality tracks on your ipod another way? Can anyone explain to me what a FLAC WAV file etc are what does it mean? Sorry if it's such a Dumb Ass question? I AM A DINOSAUR.
What format for best quality audio on Ipod Classic or Ipod Touch?
- Thread starter ontheline
- Start date
peter312
Well-known member
In layman's terms, there are three types of audio file you can create from a CD:
1) Completely uncompressed files - these can be either WAV of AIFF format. They contain the same audio data as the CD and either is compatible with an iPod.
2) Lossless compressed files - these include FLAC or ALAC (apple lossless) formats, the latter of which is compatible with an iPod. These are a bit like audio "zip files", so contain all of the audio data squeezed into a smaller file.
3) Lossy compressed files - these include AAC (or M4A) files (the same format as you can buy from the iTunes store) or MP3 files (the same as you can buy from a number of stores, including Amazon). Either are compatible with an iPod. These are the smallest type of files and have been created by encoding programs that discard some of the audio signal, mostly the bits you can't or are least likely to hear.
The benefit of the two types of compressed files is that they have better support for "tagging" - the information stored in a file such as name of track, artist, track number, album, etc.
As for which would be the best format to use on an iPod, you will get a number of different opinions. In my personal opinion, as long as you use either AAC or MP3 files, well encoded at 256kbps (assuming you are using iTunes to encode you files) you will likely find these good enough. If you have sufficient space to encode your files at ALAC, you might notice a slight improvement, although I think using this format will mean the battery on you iPod needs charging more often. iTunes can be set to copy your CD's as any of these three formats.
Hopefully this helps.
Kind regards
Peter
1) Completely uncompressed files - these can be either WAV of AIFF format. They contain the same audio data as the CD and either is compatible with an iPod.
2) Lossless compressed files - these include FLAC or ALAC (apple lossless) formats, the latter of which is compatible with an iPod. These are a bit like audio "zip files", so contain all of the audio data squeezed into a smaller file.
3) Lossy compressed files - these include AAC (or M4A) files (the same format as you can buy from the iTunes store) or MP3 files (the same as you can buy from a number of stores, including Amazon). Either are compatible with an iPod. These are the smallest type of files and have been created by encoding programs that discard some of the audio signal, mostly the bits you can't or are least likely to hear.
The benefit of the two types of compressed files is that they have better support for "tagging" - the information stored in a file such as name of track, artist, track number, album, etc.
As for which would be the best format to use on an iPod, you will get a number of different opinions. In my personal opinion, as long as you use either AAC or MP3 files, well encoded at 256kbps (assuming you are using iTunes to encode you files) you will likely find these good enough. If you have sufficient space to encode your files at ALAC, you might notice a slight improvement, although I think using this format will mean the battery on you iPod needs charging more often. iTunes can be set to copy your CD's as any of these three formats.
Hopefully this helps.
Kind regards
Peter
peter312 said:
thanks so much for your reply Peter, i have 160GB ipod classic and looking for as close to CD quality as possible from my ipod so the option 1 above is my preference. Once i place my CD into my computer and the tracks are taken from itunes, by doing this are the tracks of better quality if i was to buy the cd directly from the itunes store? I don't mind taking having less tracks at the best quality than loads of tracks with poorer quality.
Overdose
Well-known member
In all honesty, you are likely to find tracks encoded at 192Kbps AAC quite satisfactory. Use 256 if you want to feel more comfortable, but obviously there is no harm in using lossless if you have the space.
You will need to set iTunes to rip at the desired bit rate in the preferences section.
iTunes tracks are typically 256 Kbps, so that should give you some idea of a suitable bit rate to rip at.
You will need to set iTunes to rip at the desired bit rate in the preferences section.
iTunes tracks are typically 256 Kbps, so that should give you some idea of a suitable bit rate to rip at.
peter312
Well-known member
ontheline said:
In that case, I would suggest you opt for Apple Lossless files (option 2). They will sound as good as option 1 but take up less space. They will also be of better quality than the files you can buy from iTunes.
However, if you are playing your music from the iPod on headphones, you may find that you cannot hear any difference between these files (Apple Lossless or WAV/AIFF) and MP3/AAC files. I believe this is partly down to both the good quality encoding you can get for MP3/AAC files and partly down to the limits of the electronics used in iPods (and many other portable media players). They wew designed to perform well with MP3/AAC files.
Kind regards
Peter
nopiano
Well-known member
Great explanation, Peter, if I may say so. I am sure that 'ontheline' can try some permutation as you have described and see if he perceives a benefit. All I would add is to consider that if you don't want to re-rip everything in future it might be worth transferring at a higher date now so as to still be of use if you upgrade from a lo-fi iPod to either a mac plus DAC, or full blown streamer via a proper audio system.
peter312
Well-known member
iMark
Well-known member
We rip all our CD's to Apple Lossless, basically for streaming to the Airport Express and then the stereo.
Although the Apple Lossless files sound great on my iPod Nano, they do take up a lot of space. I mainly use my Nano when on public transport or in the car. In iTunes there is possibilty to transcode files on the fly while loading the pod. We have now settle on transcoding to AAC 256 mbps, which is more than good enough for listening in the car and through earphones and takes up about a third of the space on the pod, thus leaving more room.
This way we have the best of both worlds: CD quality on the stereo and reasonably sized files on the pod. I wouldn't recommend ripping CDs to WAV or AIFF. There are no SQ benefits, the files are twice the size and the tagging is not very good. Apple Lossless (ALAC) rules when you're using iTunes and a pod. For us iTunes is the archive and repository for all our CDs.
Although the Apple Lossless files sound great on my iPod Nano, they do take up a lot of space. I mainly use my Nano when on public transport or in the car. In iTunes there is possibilty to transcode files on the fly while loading the pod. We have now settle on transcoding to AAC 256 mbps, which is more than good enough for listening in the car and through earphones and takes up about a third of the space on the pod, thus leaving more room.
This way we have the best of both worlds: CD quality on the stereo and reasonably sized files on the pod. I wouldn't recommend ripping CDs to WAV or AIFF. There are no SQ benefits, the files are twice the size and the tagging is not very good. Apple Lossless (ALAC) rules when you're using iTunes and a pod. For us iTunes is the archive and repository for all our CDs.
ontheline said:
Sound quality benefits.
Tagging is all the Artist/Album/Track info embedded in the file. WAV files do not support tagging so if / when you move the file elsewhere all the tagging info will be lost.
Stick with ALAC/FLAC for lossless.
iMark
Well-known member
Sorry!
SQ is Sound Quality.
Apple Lossless sounds exactly the same as a CD.
Tagging is getting information about the tracks on your CD into iTunes, which information is then transferred to your pod.
When you pop in a CD into your computer, iTunes will connect to the Gracenote database to retrieve information about the CD, including artist, track title, composer, year of release, etc. WAV and AIFF have limited support for these information tags. Apple Lossless has full support. iTunes can also look for artwork, which is then stored in the ID tag. It's quite nice to see album artwork on the screen of your pod.
If you're interested, here's some further reading on tagging in iTunes.
http://ipod.about.com/od/editingsonginfo/ht/editing_itunes.htm
One last piece of advice. When you start ripping CDs in iTunes, please keep error correction ON. This is essential to getting a top quality rip into iTunes.
SQ is Sound Quality.
Apple Lossless sounds exactly the same as a CD.Tagging is getting information about the tracks on your CD into iTunes, which information is then transferred to your pod.
When you pop in a CD into your computer, iTunes will connect to the Gracenote database to retrieve information about the CD, including artist, track title, composer, year of release, etc. WAV and AIFF have limited support for these information tags. Apple Lossless has full support. iTunes can also look for artwork, which is then stored in the ID tag. It's quite nice to see album artwork on the screen of your pod.
If you're interested, here's some further reading on tagging in iTunes.
http://ipod.about.com/od/editingsonginfo/ht/editing_itunes.htm
One last piece of advice. When you start ripping CDs in iTunes, please keep error correction ON. This is essential to getting a top quality rip into iTunes.
matt49
Well-known member
iMark said:
This is good advice. You may notice that it takes rather longer to rip CDs with the error correction turned on, but this is just because iTunes is checking and double checking that it's got all the data.
It's worth the wait.
Matt
iMark said:
+1
all good advice
-definately use a lossless file (alac seems most obvious with your hardware)
-if you can't fit all your songs on the ipod, itunes can convert your library to aac or mp3 when you sync
-error correct takes a few seconds longer to rip, and after ripping 600 recently, I can confirm it's not 100% perfect but only found 6 tracks so far that have had errors.
-itunes ocassionally can't find album artwork but simple cut and pasting of an image will sort that
-my only real complaint with it's file storage is the way it occasionally handles 'compilation cds; ossaionally end up with several seperate album files with one or two track in
good luck
manicm
Well-known member
From my experience, the best sounding format is AIFF/WAV. Apple Lossless has always sounded a bit flat on iPods, for whatever reason. AIFF supports album art.
Tkae your pick and try a few. I tend to go with WAV files, as I like to be able to use them across a variety of sources - iPod Touch (formerly),. my phone (currently preferred), my amp and via the Apple TV 3.
manicm said:
Well given that the iPods' DAC is decoding identical PCM audio whether AIFF/WAV or ALAC, I would suggest that they sound identical, and will show restraint by stopping short of telling you you're imagining it.
iMark
Well-known member
There are quite a few people that imagine or claim they can hear a difference between WAV/AIFF and lossless formats like ALAC and FLAC. There is absolutely no evidence. Lossless compression for audio files works on the same principles like compression of any other comuter file. After compression and decompression you end up with an exact digital copy of the original file.
You never hear of people saying that they can see a difference between a zipped Word document that has been unzipped and the original file. Or a jpeg.
Lossless compression does what it says on the tin: it's lossless. But as with many things in audioland, people want to hear differences. I don't know why, but the element of imagination and suggestion is always just around the corner. In other words, if you want to hear a difference, you will hear it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_compression
You never hear of people saying that they can see a difference between a zipped Word document that has been unzipped and the original file. Or a jpeg.
Lossless compression does what it says on the tin: it's lossless. But as with many things in audioland, people want to hear differences. I don't know why, but the element of imagination and suggestion is always just around the corner. In other words, if you want to hear a difference, you will hear it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_compression
matt49
Well-known member
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