*DAMN R6 Forum

TY Civic  ::bussi::

GS, just try 320 kbps AAC, no sense in having that much space for music, I doubt you will hear any difference. (I can't hear any with 128 kbps AAC from the iTMS from AIFF CD quality)

But what I'm doing is compiling my own CDs.  I have to keep them in AIFF format so that I can listen to them in my car (most factory car stereos don't read anything other than AIFF).[/size]

you can burn MP3 formate (and any other that iTunes reads) to AIFF with iTunes (it converts it while burning). you simply choose audio-cd in the iTunes burning preferences. no noticeable quality loss.

That's not true.  Try playing them on the Ford Mustang's 1,140-watt factory stereo system cranked up to the max and there is a BIG difference.[/size]

I would use the Apple Lossless Codec, which uses less space than AIFF and should encode the files without quality losses...

Indeed, ALC is much better than AIFF.

as i said... you can set it to "Audio-CD" in the iTunes burn settings (preferences/options) and whenever you burn a CD it converts all songs you burn to AIFF automatically.

....with higher quality.

But will it lose any sound quality on a 1,140-Watt sound system cranked up to the max?  I'm telling you, every time I've tried to convert back to AIFF it just doesn't have the same deep bass on the Mustang's sound system.[/size]

AIFF is an old codec. ALC on the other side is quite new and uses therefore a much better technology. it has better sound-quality while using less (not much) space. audio-CDs simply still use AIFF because it's the industry standard... there are several better codecs already.

Then I'd blame the sound system for having a bad choice of compatibility.

But just because it's using better technology and has better sound quality doesn't get rid of the fact that I'm going from AIFF format to AIFF format.  Therefore, no matter how good ALC is, it isn't going to improve on something that was originally recorded in AIFF format.[/size]

of course, the quality won't improve by converting to a different codec. the only possibility to get a better original quality would be to have a better codec than AIFF on the audio-CD itself already.
the point here is, though, which codec wouldn't lower the quality by converting but have the important advantage of less space usage.

How much smaller would say a 5 minute long song be in ALC format versus AIFF format?[/size]

lemme check it out... i'll edit this post with the answer asap.


okay... a 5:10 minutes song is 53.5MB big in AIFF formate here. the same song converted to ALC is only 35.2MB small. that's about a third less in size, without losing any quality. :)

Well, the true test will be converting a song from AIFF format, to ALC format, then back to AIFF format and playing it on the Mustang's sound system.  I think I'll use my Violent Femms cd to try this out with.  I'll let you guys know tomorrow if the conversion stands up to 1,140-Watts of pure musical bliss.[/size]

very interesting, waiting eagerly for the result... :)

don't use some shitty CD-R, though, that can lower the quality noticeably... especially in this quality range. ;)

just found a thread about exactly this topic in the HydrogenAudio forums... so if you want some opionions from professionals, check it out. :)

Apple Lossless vs AIFF (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=77261faf196f21639156ba12a39f7f6a&showtopic=23132)

Well, this morning on my way to work I blasted Violent Femms in full 1,140-Watt musical bliss.  I had the original CD, and two high-quality Music CD-Rs that I burned onto.  On one CD-R I burned the album straight off of iTunes in AIFF format.  On the second CD-R I burned the album after converting it to ALC format, and then back to AIFF format.  I listened to the first few tracks of each CD on my way to work (I have a 30-mile drive to work everyday).  Well, at full volume (which is EXTREMELY loud on that sound system), I couldn't tell the difference in sound quality, or most importantly, in bass response (which is what was really important to me on that sound system), between the 3 CDs.  So ALC must truely be "lossless" which works for me.  I think I'll be converting my 2,100+ songs to ALC format this weekend.  Right now it takes up just over 100GB of my hard drive.  After the conversion they should only take up about 60GB of hard drive space.  I'm still gonna buy that second 250GB hard drive though!   ;D

Thanks for the help guys!

My step brother just got a silverado with dual 12'' subs in the back and a new alpine head unit. 3,000 watts. its a miniature earthquake everywhere we go. And how loud do you really want to play the beatles GS? It plays all sorts of burned cds, format dosnt seem to be a problem.

Hey, I don't just play the Beatles in that car!  I usually crank up my Violent Femms, Creed, and 3 Doors Down in it though.  Some factory stereos are set up now to play MP3 and other formats, but many are still set up to only play AIFF (my new Saleen Mustang's Shaker 1000 Audio system will be able to play MP3).  A lot of your aftermarket stuff will play just about any format, just like your home computer will.  That new Shaker 1000 system (which replaces the 2004 Mustang's Mach 1000 system) features dual 10" subs and 1,000-Watts, which is plenty for a little Mustang.  ;)

Christ, my 3,621 songs take up only 16.25 gigs!

that's because of the shitty (but very small) MP3 quality. ;)

lol, with 3 gigs left on my hard drive, i dont think i have much choice.

you have the choice of getting an additional HD, internal or external (don't know if you have a tower or an all-in-one). ;)

I only use MP3 and at most songs at high bitrates you can't hear any difference. Sorry there you can't hear any difference. Even super pro audio magazines like Audiophile compared CDs with MP3s decoded with 192 and higher and no one could hear any difference on B&W soundsystems and higher(10.000 US Dollar and upwards) It's like the difference of the Super Audio CD system from Sony which uses 24bit instead of 16bit encoding. Only on some very special things like the classic you can hear a slightly difference but at it's proven that often the room acoustic makes a much bigger difference than the cd format.

It's all in your head  ;)

I personally have around 14.000 mp3's 65+ gigs of music and in most cases you can't hear a difference, only a few songs need really high MP3 encoding, othewise the bass sounds dull.

Happy friday night,

Mauti

It is all in their heads. I agree with mauti on that point. Especially since most audio CDs are encoded with a non-lossless form of AIFF.

well, in the case of AIFF vs ALC you have to remember that the sound on CD already is AIFF. It is encoded in 16bit, at a sampling rate of 44.1kHz, uncompressed. the ALC format only uses some techniques to shrink file size, without information loss.

for some people, MP3 sounds nicer because the codec automatically makes the music sound "better" by upping treble and bass a bit (like the Loudness function on some amps), because it cuts everything away which is deeper than about 10Hz to make the file size smaller.

I dont bother burning CD's anymore. Everything goes on my ipod and plugs directly into my integrated audio system in my Durango.  ::lol::

What do you use to hook up your iPod, voods? I have tried the iTrip and the Cassette converter, and both are very staticky. I've yet to find a use for my iPod, and I'm kinda mad. I'm guessing I'll use it a bit more in college going from class to class etc.

www.alpine-usa.com (http://www.alpine-usa.com)

there is no cheap method. You gotta pay at the very least 190$ to get something correct. Which is not worth it i think.

Definitely not. That might be my next little project though, unless GhostSniper ever feels charitable (and no I don't mean giving to charity!). :D

http://www.mp3yourcar.com/

p.s. Crypt, i had the itrip once and it actually worked really well for me. Did you read the directions? I know you probably did and you allready know this but im going to tell you anyways. The number one reason why most people get a staticy sound using the itrip is because they have the ipod volume turned up 100%. You need to set the ipods volume to about 60-80% and the sound should clear up.