What's your favorite audio codec?

Apple Lossless...A 1:1 file.

I have, and I have used them extensively and listened. I want as little compression as possible, and Monkey Audio sucks.

WAV is the biggest, no compression, but you lose the metadata in iTunes.

Osgorth-what I mean when I say a little compression as possible is would prefer none at all.

"Both of these formats compress the file much more than Apple Lossless can. Check them out."

the question is really...Why would anyone want to compress files more?

I personally will buy more storage if it meant improving sonics since it is so cheap, so moot point. Unless your worried about space on an iPod itself or other portable player. This is the very reason I like ALAC. Although in my trials I could not hear any difference between FLAC AND ALAC, if you can you're a better ear than me. Although I feel I heard better with WAV, could be in my head.

Anyway, I have no interest in worrying about compressing my audio files more on my home system, particularly where I have a TB of space.I worry about space-saving for music that travels, which is only worthy of headphones anyway.

Apple Lossless is as good if not better than all you swear are the better here in this thread, sorry to say. I am well versed on the subject as well, and I work very closely with this technology. Also in case you weren't aware, I have a USB DAC with a tubed output, so all my music is HDD based, all ALAC, with error correction, and it sounds better than the actual CD on a Meridian G08 CD player. Go figure...

Ledhed2222- I am not sure you have read all of what I have said if your misunderstanding, or this entire thread for that matter-I use LOSSLESS..How am I misinformed? I am not the one who said ALAC sucks compared to a format that has little mainstream support and sounds the same. And if the three (ALAC,FLAC,Monkey) are the same as you say, how can you think that ALAC sucks (sonically speaking)? Like I said, I can't hear the difference between the three lossless formats. And here on an Audio forum, we care more about sonics than having storage discussions. Which is my point. ALAC provides support, is well written, and sounds the same as the others. As far as sound difference between WAV and lossless, I said it could be in my head. Operative word COULD.

Next question- if WAV and ALAC are mathematically identical to uncompressed (WAV) like you say then how come you say in the same breath, lossless is not 1:1?? Your logic seems flawed.

Anyway, I use ALAC because I use iTunes exclusively, on a MAC and it is just easier, and sonically I can't hear the difference between the lossless formats-although its been a few months since I listened to the ones you swear are better. But I have had issues using other codecs with iTunes from a support perspective. Sounds like you may using awindows-based PC? Which are sonically inferior in the first place, without a shadow of a doubt. I heard significant differences when I used a XP-based machine with a properly configured ASIO, regardless of the codec I chose. So I switched to MAC since Apple drivers have much better control over the hardware than Windows will EVER be capable of. For my application this was critical. Ultimately this what I based my decision on when choosing a codec as well, all Apple software is written very well; ALAC is no different.

In the end, this debate is a waste of time. All the Lossless codecs sound the same to my ear. If it is a storage debate you want to create, like I said I have oooodles of it, so I am not worried about sacrificing a few MBs per file-unless sonics were to improve along with. Just make sure and point out why something "sucks", like I have here.

In the end, the benefits of savings physical storage space by move my music to HDD vastly outweighs any additional investment I might need to make in it.

Ledhed2222-Now I understand where you are coming from.

To answer your question-I have two completely different libraries. One is all AAC on one PC, and the other ALAC on my MAC, which is dedicated to audio for the most part. For our iPod (80gb) we just sync off home PC and the library is AAC, and we use about 60GB of space for the portable library.

You can also have iTunes boot to two diffent libraries, where it will prompt you to choose when you click on it to open. This might prove useful for you.

When you say huge, how huge? How many gigs of music in total do you have?

To boot to a different library, hold shift then click iTunes while holding shift, you will be prompted to either choose or create a new library. iTunes (2) is the default I believe.

And yes, you would have to spend time putting music into two formats and then manage two libraries as well. I personally find it to be totally worth the (small) effort for my needs of both portable and hi-end home audio. I personally wouldn't dare put an MP3 (AAC) near my home system, and feel it is wasteful to put lossless on my wifes' IPod (she is the primary user of the portable audio). So this method allows me more control over my entire collection. All you have to is burn everything in Lossless and then have iTunes downgrade the other library to AAC. You can always take away data, just can't ad-which I am sure you are aware of.

But in the end, you have to have the space for it.