This is a bit retrospective because I have already made up my mind. But has anyone else noticed Max encodes ALAC better that iTunes itself. I encoded alot of music twice because I could not get the same brightness and Bass out of the itunes encoded stuff. I now use Max to do ALL encoding.
Also does copying files into iTunes degrade the quality? As in does iTunes make an exact faithful copy for it's folder?
I realize max is bring the files in louder, but I turned down the volume for my comparisons as well. Is iTunes just junk all around? I am beginning to think so.

Apple LOSSLESS Audio Codec.

Brightness and bass? Oh dear.

ALAC is lossless. Lossless is lossless. Assuming the same source, the files mad from Max will be identical to the ones made in iTunes. What you are hearing is all in your head. I suppose that, perhaps, there is something else going on like equalization on one but not the other. I highly doubt that is the case, though.

Also, you should definitely take a moment to read the TOS, and especially #8.

I prefere to use iTunes ALAC over MAX because for reasons I do not understand, MAX encoded files do not play gapless in iTunes. There is alway a small stumbling. I don't know if iTunes adds some additional information to the files which allows him to play gapless or if he handles the files different for other reasons.