Does anyone have any experience with the MP3 encoder of Apple's iTunes? Two of my friends have Macs :x, and they use iTunes to rip CDs. If I remeber correctly, they use VBR with a minimum bitrate of 160 kbps, thinking that they are getting really good quality MP3s. How good/bad is the iTunes MP3 encoder? I'd guess not as good as LAME --alt-preset standard.

How should I try to convince them to switch to LAME? Are there any particular test samples (like fatboy.wav?) that the iTunes encoder happens suck at? They both have MacOS X, so building LAME would be trivial for them. Another reason they use iTunes is because it's very easy to rip and organize music - is there a good way to rip and encode using LAME on a Mac? I'd try to get them to use MPC except there's no MPC encoder for Macs (I think there's a decoder, though). Maybe OGG Vorbis would be a good suggestion (it doesn't happen to work with iTunes, does it?) - what do you think?

Also, does anyone know how good the DACs on a Mac are? I know that the new G4s have 24-bit DACs, but what about the slightly older 16-bit ones? I've never been able to find any SNR or frequency response data about Mac DACs.

Remeber: friends don't let friends use bad MP3 encoders

Yes it does.
There's a Ogg Vorbis plugin for iTunes (MacOS X)

http://illadvised.com/~jordy/

This is another good player for MacOS X. (also ogg vorbis sup.):

http://www.whamb.com/


http://www.vorbis.nu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=105

Thanks for the ogg link. But this is for a comand-line encoder. Can people use ogg from within iTunes?

Do you have info on how to use LAME in iTunes?

one of my friends used to rip some tracks for me with itunes, and rip quality was SNAFU (pops...), i had to send him death threats to make him run EAC on his PC instead.

They can still use iTunes as a front end for LAME, and to look up song titles, etc. - but encode with LAME using the Blacktree scripts. Easy to install and use. See this thread:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=ST&f=15&t=4796

the link has a quicktime component that will allow you to use ogg in iTunes.

This is the real problem. I have searched the internet for a secure ripper for Mac OS X and can find no trace. Current workarounds are EAC on a networked PC or dual booting PPC linux for grip and paranoia.

There is someone who has written a LAME front end who is considering adding secure ripping. check him out here: http://www.stumod.com/nmp3ripper.html

You might also want to cross your fingers and hope that the rumored imminent arrival of iTunes 4 includes secure ripping along with better ogg vorbis and aac support.

Or if you want to be slightly more proactive: http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

Does iTunes use a particular mp3 encoder (eg. FhG, Xing, etc.) or is it their own 'custom brand'?

I would like to know that too...

As far as I remember, there's a shareware application for Macs called Audion 3 that uses LAME v3.92 for MP3 encodings. It also is the only mp3PRO capable program for Apple computers I know (encoding and decoding). The company calls itself "Panic":

http://www.panic.com/audion/

I should add that Audion 3 also plays Ogg Vorbis files, maybe someone should suggest to them to take a look at Menno's FAAD2 source or even ask Ahead for a "joint venture"...

What does encspot say?

My guess would be a Fraunhofer-based since Apple did license mp3 from them for their QuickTime 4 software back a few years ago.

Yeah, I'm 99% sure it uses Fraunhofer

From : http://zgp.org/linux-elitists/200201010418...ntcode.com.html :

"both iTunes (version 2.0.3) and my iPod state that they use Fraunhofer and Thomson technologies for MP3."

Where? I'd love a PPC MPC decoder . . .