Dbpoweramp ALAC and iTunes ALAC, Is there a problem converting between both? Options

[geeuhnfay]

I know that lossless to lossless encoding has no degradation since it's just compression algorithms but I'm wondering since the dbpoweramp ALAC codec was reverse engineered from the iTunes one.

I'm ripping to FLAC using dbpoweramp and then converting it to ALAC so that it's compatible with iTunes. From here I convert the dbpoweramp ALAC to iTunes ALAC encoder. Is this OK or should I be using AIFF as the intermediary format.

I would just rip with iTunes but I like accurate with dbpoweramp

This post has been edited by geeuhnfay: Jun 7 2012, 02:39

[db1989]

I think the OP is asking whether reverse-engineered implementation(s) of ALAC are indeed lossless; I’m sure they are, despite their unofficial nature. Anyway, now that ALAC is open-sourced, as has been said, there’s even less need to be concerned.

I convert the dbpoweramp ALAC to iTunes ALAC encoder. Is this OK or should I be using AIFF as the intermediary format.

If I had a penny… All formats must be decoded to PCM (here, read that as AIFF) in order to be converted to another, lossless or otherwise; it’s just that some hide the process from the user rather than spitting out a WAV file and possibly requiring them to manually perform the next step.