Topic: FLAC, ALAC & the Ipod system - How to manage?

[JoeyGS]

I am getting my feet wet into the digital hifi world and have found that with today's technology, a digital rig can come close to an analog rig.  And since this is about audio source, I am posting it here.

I would like to some of your opinions/recommendations on how I can effectively manage the digital music data and different formats for different players. The objective is to build high quality digital music files and played over several transports.

My music source:
1.  CDs
2.  FLAC, AIFF, WMA music downloads (CD and/or Studio quality)

My transports: (Currently can't afford all-in-one systems , such as, Olive, Pearchtree, etc.)
1.  PC
2.  Ipod Digital transports (e.g. Wadia, Onkyo, etc.)

Initial questions to begin with are:
1.  Ripping CDs - Is ripping CDs to WAV format as the archive file, then, converting it to FLAC (for pc) or AIFF / ALAC (for Ipod) the best way to go?  Or rip directly to FLAC?  Objective is to have the best ripped digital file with no loss.
2.  What's the best CD ripper? (minimun capability - FLAC, ALAC, WAV)
3.  What's the best format converter? (minimun capability - FLAC, ALAC, WAV to other formats and vice versa)

Regards,
JoeyGS

[mccoy]

I can answer one, the best cd ripper: EAC 

[dukesociety]

wav is the best format file for archiving but larger files compared to other lossless compression.

[mccoy]

wav is the best format file for archiving but larger files compared to other lossless compression.

I think FLAC is better since it can be tagged and has a much smaller file size.

[rascal101]

The keyword is lossless compression. WAV is not compression but a transformation from CD format to PC format as such there is no compression at all.

FLAC is not necessarily better. At best, it can have same performance as no compression. However, yes it is better in terms of file size.

[jefrox75]

   I'm also a newbie on this , i just want to share my knowledge  and maybe it can help you..and to all masters out there, maybe you can enlighten us up..

    I ripped my cds to FLAC for my computer and NMT, and ALAC for my Ipod...
    and I'm using dBpoweramp cd ripper.... it rips all my cd's to FLAC and to ALAC.. it automatically gets the song titles, artists, etc .. and the album artwork as well.
    I'm using Foobar with wasapi component for my pc to play FLAC format..and if you want cd quality to your ipod, convert it into ALAC or AIFF instead of AAC format..

[mccoy]

The keyword is lossless compression. WAV is not compression but a transformation from CD format to PC format as such there is no compression at all.

FLAC is not necessarily better. At best, it can have same performance as no compression. However, yes it is better in terms of file size.

The question was which was better for archiving, not which is the better performer.
Since Flac is lossless, performance is indeed null.

But in terms of file size and organization thru tags, then flac definitely is better   

[dukesociety]

what the OP wants is to archive his audio files with no loss. just read the question 1 objective.

[JoeyGS]

We have the same dilemma and here are my own thoughts and also from what I have initially read:

1. Ripping CDs because I have a collection which I want transported into my future digital Hi Def rig ---- most probably for convenience at the same time having the audiophile sound...... and another thing is preparing the eminent extinction of CD OR getting the taste of new technology in audio while I am still alive

2. PCs, as I have read, including laptops produce noise or what they call jitters which affects the transmission of the digital data into the external components such DAC or preamps or receivers. The new external transports (excluding the dac) or what they call digital media transports handles these jitters that does not affect or corrupt the digital data before it enters the DAC. There is the wadia or Onkyo ND-S1 and many others. There is a simple device named Hiface made by a Italian company, M2Tech, which is a hi-end S/PDIF Output Interface (distributed here by Arch Audio) which ensures clean digital audio data streaming into the DAC. http://www.m2tech.biz/hiface.html. It appears to be a good device based on what I read from 6moon's review http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/m2tech/hiface.html

3. Flac in Itunes - So far from What I have read, it's Apple that does not want to openly share its platform with other competing formats. With your flac files you still need to convert into ALAC or AIFF so that it can be played into the Ipods. Even Rockbox have not catched up in their firmwares to make the newer generation Ipods take FLAC.

4. Some of the alternative to itunes are: Foobar2000, Songbird and MediaMonkey. Songbird's interface is quite similar to itunes. But I really have not decided which to use.

[dukesociety]

if i were you, archive them to wav then convert it to apple lossless for itunes and all apple products compatibilities. OR directly convert it to apple lossless.

i did mine to apple lossless, digital out from mac, jitter corrected by beresford DAC to amp.

used to convert my cds to FLAC kaso medyo matrabaho if i want to copy them sa ipods for auditioning docks and headphones sa mga malls.

[JoeyGS]

You are right duke, and I have briefly tried several decoders/converters, namely: Exact Audio Copy, DBPoweramp, Foobar2000, and Songbird

For me, to build an archive of lossless music format in the Windows environment, I found WAV or FLAC format to be most practical.

1. WAV can easily be drag/drop into Itunes. Itunes can play WAV directly if PC will be the source. Itunes can also convert WAV into ALAC (Apple Lossless) if the Ipod will be utilized as the digital transport. The premise of all of this is to play hi resolution music files (so MP3, AAC and likes is not being considered on my part). WAV is 2x the size of FLAC and will occupy more disk space.

2. FLAC will have the same digital information as WAV and is half the file size. FLAC cannot be played directly into Itunes. FLAC will require another player (software) to make PC as a source transport. FLAC needs to be converted into ALAC in order to be played into Itunes and likewise have your Ipod as the source transport.

So, in order to allow the PC and Ipod as digital transport,
WAV = Simple, 1 ripper/converter, Itunes as player is enough, but, 2x the file size of FLAC
FLAC = Needs 2 Players (Itunes and FLAC player), 1 ripper/converter, needs to convert FLAC to WAV for Itunes, 1/2 the size of WAV

As for the CD ripper/Converter, I prefer DBpoweramp and second Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for the Windows environment:

1. DBpoweramp is most convenient. Can rip CD to desired format (WAV, FLAC, ALAC). Can convert to and from into the desired format. Can do batch conversion at one go. Not free.
2. EAC is also convenient. But cannot rip or convert files into ALAC. Limited to WAV and FLAC for lossless files. No batch processing. It's free.

Looks like I will go with WAV files that I will archive and convert from and to other formats.  Anyway cost per gigabyte of storage now is becoming affordable.  In order to avaoid duplicate copies of different formats, I will just maintain the WAV files delete the other formats which are not being used.  Coverting from WAV to other formats can easily be done by softwares such as DBPoweramp.

Thank you to all who can contributed to the thead.  Please keep on posting as the development of digital music is on its way to being equal to analog in terms of resolution.  There is still a lot to learn and a lot to share in our community.