Ripping CDs to lossless in Itunes.. HiFi approved?

Ed,

Gordon Rankin has found that the CPU speed affects the playback of Apple Lossless even though the CPU shows minimal use during play. My iMac 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo sounds the same with AIFF and Apple Lossless. My Mac Book Pro 2.01 GHz Core 2 Duo sounds better with AIFF. You can use the convert feature in iTunes to convert files to AIFF and it will leave your Apple Lossless files. Try it and see how it sounds on your MacMini.

Steve

Ed,

The slower the CPU, the worse Apple Lossless will sound. Faster CPU, no difference between AIFF and Apple Lossless.

You don't have to rip your CDs again. iTunes can convert you Apple Lossless to AIFF. You can then delete your Apple Lossless files if you don't want them. If you are using iTunes 8.0 do the following:

Select Preferences; General; Import Settings; Change to AIFF. Select the songs you want to convert. Click the Advanced menu and you will see "Create AIFF version.

iTunes cannot convert 24 bit stuff. It changes it to 16 bit. This should be no problem with CDs.

Steve

Ed,

It's the choices that make this fun!

Enjoy

Steve

It's hard to say just how fast the computer needs to be to hear no difference in Apple Lossless VS AIFF. My 2.8 GHz iMac sounds the same with a Wavelength USB Crimson DAC. My MacBook Pro 2.1 GHz sounds inferior on Apple Lossless.

I now run all my music using AIFF. Hard drives are so cheap, why bother with Apple Lossless.