Music File Formats - AIFF vs ALC

[Civrock]

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

[BTs_GhostSniper]

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!   

Thanks for the help guys!

[cO.Kuza]

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.

[BTs_GhostSniper]

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. 

[spike]

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

[Civrock]

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

[spike]

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

[Civrock]

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).

[*DAMN Mauti]

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

[BTs_Mysterio]

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.

[*DAMN Elandrion]

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.

[.vooDoo.]

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

[crypt]

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.

[Civrock]

www.alpine-usa.com

[seth]

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.

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

[crypt]

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

[.vooDoo.]

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.