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IPOD CLASSIC 7th Gen, Apple or WAV?

Alright so I might get a new IPOD Classic. I have never owned one, but due to a new car having the USB port capable of controlling it right on the new radio decided it would be nice to have vs. carrying around CD's.

Anyway for the most part I have heard MP3 files in cars, and its not bad, not much different than CD directly. For Car I normally could care less.

Home is a different story, if I decide in the future to hook this up thru a Dock or not I would like to just be prepared and do the best lossless format possible, I don't care about space, the 160 gig on the new one should be fine even with un-compressed files for the amount of stuff I will ever put on it.

So where is the Audio-phile hi end at on the format wars these days? Use apples format, or go to the WAV, FLAC What?

I want it as simple as possible, I will not be using Itunes service for downloading any music, strictly copying the CD's. Which is the final question, not sure if you can do any of this without using ITUNES, but what program and setup do you guys suggest downloading to the Laptop for best CD transfer to an IPOD with best format and of course best user interface? I have plenty of hard drive backup space etc... Once I get the whole CD collection transfered.
Thanks
undertow

Showing 5 responses by albertporter

albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
I had exactly your experience, bought a car with iPod plug in the glove box and controls on the steering wheel :^).

I transferred a bunch of my favorite CDs into iTunes via Apple Lossless and listen in the car and sometimes for long trips, with Ultimate Ears in ear speaker.

The DAC in an iPod is not going to compete with a nice in home CD, I think Apple Lossless is fine for what you're planning.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
One pet peeve of mine is that the iPod is talked of in a negative light, such as, "an iPod is not going to compete with a nice in home CD", this I do not agree with, nor due a number of reviewers.

The question concerned use of iPod in a car, that typically implies that the on board DAC of the iPod is what will be listened to. For that reason it will not be equal to a good home CD player with better DAC.

You basically posted the same thing when you wrote
Most are aware of the Wadia iTransport which bypasses the DAC within the iPod, making the iPod a hard drive based source.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Well, actually the way my iPod will be used is via the USB line, so actually my understanding is that the car stereo will be getting the raw digital signal, not an analog already D/A conversion from the iPod.

Apple provides a cable with their connector on one end and USB at the other. My car came with factory installed genuine Apple branded cable but the signal from that is analog to the car system and hard wired. There is no USB.

If your car has the ability to decode digital from iPod that's great, reading through the list of radio's that can do this, there are precious few.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Let me follow up on above, as sometimes comments can't be seen in full light when reading. I fully understand what you were saying in your first post and fully agree, the point I was trying to convey was the possibilities of the iPod at home and rather than use all my own words I stole yours to make my point; I hope this clarifies my point better, my apologies for not being clearer.

And truthfully, I was thinking iPod more for the car even though Undertow's opening statement read he might later put in his home. I use iPod for car trips or to escape engine noise on long flights.

I choose Apple Lossless but admit I have not compared to anything other than MP3 compression. The difference between those two formats was easy to discern, even on my tower computer system with crappy speakers, so I never used anything other than Apple Lossless for my car.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Undertow,

However I am using a Sony aftermarket stereo with true USB and DACS, I believe this does bypass the Apple Dacs in this case. Thanks

Well, you're ahead of my cars system then because I believe you are right that mine just connects with the factory radio to provide analog connection.
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