mauidj wrote:
I am about to purchase a SB3 to connect to the DAC of my Krell KPS20i.
(Althgough the Transporter looks so very tempting!) I will use a Mac as
the server and would like to continue with iTunes. What is the best
lossless method of ripping my large cd collection? I will eventuall
re rip to a lossy format for my portable needs.
There is no need to re-rip
The whole point of lossless is that you lose nothing. So you can always
convert to any other format without losing any quality.
Once it is stored on your hard disk in a lossless format, there are tons
of tools that let you transform the data into another format, without
touching the CDs. Even I wrote one.
Could someone explain (or point me to a
reference) the main differences between the lossless formats. Also
does one software encode better than others?
There is very little difference in any of the lossless formats, other
than the design goals and intellectual property.
They all allow tagging, and all are lossless.
The main open one is FLAC, which is free and lossless, hence the name.
There are at least three closed/propriatary formats.
Apple Lossless is owned and controlled by Apple. Windows Mediaplayer
Audio lossless is owned and controlled by Microsoft. Meridian Lossless
Packing is owned by Boothroyd Stuart (Meridian), and used in DVD-Audio.
All of them, if properly implemented, must sound identical. That is the
point of lossless.
Some people worry that one of the closed systems vendors, such as
Microsoft could do a deal with a pack of lying lawyers, say the RIAA,
and demand that a future version of their closed protocol include
draconian DRM (Digital Rights Management) software. So far, this has not
happened. Whether this is a reasonable future worry is left as an
excercise to the reader.
FLAC was designed to be really easy to decode and playback, at the cost
of more time on the compression side. Since you typically compress only
once, and playback a lot, that is a justified engineering decision.
Others have different goals, I would guess that Microsoft wants WMA to
encourage you to run Windows.
--
Pat
http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html
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