Mac Laptop & Sound Cards

Ckorody - Thanks for expressing my condition! I'm actually starting to get a handle on a lot of this but am grateful for Audiogon members as the guys and girls at the Apple Store don't seem to understand what I'm getting at - i.e., highest quality musical downloads.

Thanks again, everyone. All info is helpful to me, and I'm sure, others.

By the way, yesterday I ordered a 500gb hard drive. Will probably get another 500 for back up but at this time will have 820gb by next week.

Wow! Thanks, guys. I actually had the info about the soundcard vs. Mac's internal. I learned that when I had my first One to One at the Apple Store.

I think i will try the outboard DAC and a number of other suggestions. I'm getting addicted to the convenience (and sheer fun) of this system and want to integrate in into my Joule Electra/EAR/Audio Physic system. I've already got 1,300+ songs loaded, including a bunch I bought from iTunes. I do DJ work on the side and intend to work the laptop into that in a big way. Already use it to tell me what I have available.

I use AAC Endcoder at 256 kbps. I am going to burn a CD with a couple of tunes done at both AAC and Apple Lossless and which sounds best. I have checked AAC vs. lower resolution Apple encoder and the AAc sounds more like music. I listened to a tune which sounded like it was distoring my speakers. Under AAC it then sounded like an intentional distortion in the music to make it sound more "analog" like. Instruments were clearer and music was more natural and enjoyable.

Thanks again, everyone.

Any idea how much more space a Lossless file takes up compared to an AAC? I have a 320gb external hard drive and will be loading about 5,000 songs and 2,000 photos.

Ckorody - Thanks for the helpful info. I'm looking at my notes from an Apple training session about a month ago. I wrote (and remember being told) that the highest resolution is Lossless. I'd thought that was WAV file. However, I asked which setting would potentially give me the best sound (resolution) quality. I was told the following:

MP3 - lowest
AIFF - next lowest
WAV - middle
AAC - 2nd highest
Lossless - highest

If I want the best audiophile quality downloads and burning, what would be my choice? The 'expert' at the Apple Store said AAC is the best compromise between high quality resolution and storage space.

I think I'll check out newegg and look for a 500 gb for backup.

Ckorody - Thanks for so much useful information!