AIFF: what is this? I don't understand Options

[Antigen]

Hello,

sorry my stupid question.

I need some clarification.

Actually I rip my CD to FLAC or ALAC.

But I have heard that the best format is AIFF.

What is this?

I have see that iTunes can RIP to AIFF and ALAC... but if they are lossless format because there are two format?

Please help me to understand

[Sebastian Mares]

What you do is perfectly fine. AIFF is the standard audio format for uncompressed audio under OS X and is very similar to Microsoft's Wave. FLAC and ALAC are lossless so you won't lose quality while at the same time gain some space.

[Antigen]

WAV= AIFF

FLAC = ALAC


Right?

Actually i'm searching for a good solution for rip my CD without loss of quality.

I have read that :

- If a person heard a FLAC/ALAC file in realtime and a WAV/AIFF file, can detect some difference

It's true that a WAV/AIFF file sound different fromt a FLAC/ALAC file when is heard in real time? The decompression algorithm of FLAC/ALAC cause some problem?

thanks

[wnmnkh]

WAV= AIFF

FLAC = ALAC


Right?

Actually i'm searching for a good solution for rip my CD without loss of quality.

I have read that :

- If a person heard a FLAC/ALAC file in realtime and a WAV/AIFF file, can detect some difference

It's true that a WAV/AIFF file sound different fromt a FLAC/ALAC file when is heard in real time? The decompression algorithm of FLAC/ALAC cause some problem?

thanks

There is no sonic difference between uncompressed PCM (WAV,AIFF) and lossless compression. Feel free to rip your cd with FLAC, ALAC or whatever lossless codec you prefer to use.

[Antigen]

Here I have read that some one has identified a difference:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/...-Apple-Lossless

It's possibile that the AIFF version will be better because don't have decompression procedure?

Some people has ipotized that:

- the decompression introduces little difference in the sonic of the file. The file are the same, but sound different because there is the decompression procedure to do

Possible?

[[JAZ]]

Antigen: If the hardware used to play the file is soooooo bad that using a tiny percentage of CPU causes noises into the analog component of the soundcard playing it, then it is obvious that the faulty one is the hardware, not the codec.

Sincerely, there are far more reasons to worry about using an uncompressed format than a lossless format.

[Nick.C]

.... but for WAV there is more data transfer per unit time (as the audio is uncompressed) - should this not also cause noise by your argument?

[DonP]

Here I have read that some one has identified a difference:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/...-Apple-Lossless

Philosophically that's equivalent to (and this would likely play well on that site) saying you can hear the difference in someone reading "12" out loud depending on whether the person who wrote 12 on his paper was thinking of it just being 12 or as the result of 6*2.

The entity changing numbers into sound (guy with a sheet of paper or the sound card) is just reading a number and is isolated from how the number was derived.

This post has been edited by DonP: Mar 13 2011, 13:57

[Antigen]

Some people has identified sonic difference between FLAC/ALAC vs AIFF/WAV.

Possibile?


Do you suggest ALAC or AIFF?

This post has been edited by Antigen: Mar 13 2011, 14:02

[Nick.C]

Some people has identified sonic difference between FLAC/ALAC vs AIFF/WAV.

Possibile?

.... with a broken decoder....

[lvqcl]

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=16295

Many experiments have proven that audible differences that listeners can hear between audio sources are sometimes the product of imagination. These illusions can be strong, durable, shared by many listeners, and consistently associated with the knowledge of the audio source that is listened to.

A Double Blind listening Test (DBT) is a listening setup that allows to confirm that a given audible difference is indeed caused by the audio sources, and not just by the listener's impressions.

...and the rest of the thread

[Antigen]

I have read this article and I want to share with you :-)

I think that is only a product imagination.

If an ALAC is lossles how can ben different from AIFF?

Someone can detect difference in the dynamic of the sound?

[Nick.C]

Lossless is lossless, whether it be stored in a WAV or AIFF container, encoded in FLAC, ALAC, Wavpack, Tak, etc, etc. Full stop. Period. End of.

i.e. losslessly encoded audio is identical to the input audio.

[krabapple]

I have read this article and I want to share with you :-)

'computeraudiophile.com' is a cesspool of ridiculous pseudo-information about audio.

no none is likely to detect a difference in a fair test between .wav and .flac and .aiff and .alac unless their software is broken or their computer is substandard.

I hope that's clear enough for you.

This post has been edited by krabapple: Mar 13 2011, 16:20