This may be a bit longwinded: I've read a good portion of the posts regarding FLAC / WAV, etc. quality, but I feel this may be of particular interest to Mac/iTunes users, given the transcoding and playing software.
After reading the posts I took the general consensus of users and stuck with ALAC as a Mac acceptable FLAC alternative. I also learned that SS streams WAV to the SB3 (please correct me if I'm mistaken). I'm knee deep in re-ripping my CD collection directly into iTunes as ALAC (Apple Lossless) and converting my FLAC files into ALAC using Max. My FLAC collection is +200GB so it could be daunting if I had to type a lot of file names. This evening I found a FLAC compilation that wouldn't transfer tags over to ALAC (who knows how it was originally ripped), so out of laziness I converted it to WAV using xACT and then ALAC using iTunes. iTunes doesn't automatically delete the old file so I was left with a .m4a (ALAC) and a .WAV. Well, I listened to them both and was a bit put off by the big difference: WAV sounded a lot better than ALAC using only headphones out from my Mac. ALAC doesn't seem all that "Lossless" - even my wife could hear the difference. Naturally, the ALAC is much smaller at 29MB vs. the WAV at 44MB. The original FLAC was also the smaller 29MB. So then I did some other conversions: FLAC -> AIFF (44.6MB) FLAC -> WAV (44.6MB) FLAC -> ALAC (29.4MB) FLAC -> ALAC ->WAV (44.6MB) FLAC -> AIFF -> ALAC (29.4MB) FLAC -> WAV -> ALAC (29.4MB) FLAC -> WAV -> ALAC -> MP3 @192 (6.1MB) Perhaps I've been listening to long and have developed my own bias, but it seems to me that the WAV files sound better, regardless of whether they came directly from FLAC (26MB) or from FLAC (26MB) to ALAC (26MB) to WAV (44MB). To sum it up: xACT and Max work very well for re-encoding your FLAC on a Mac. WAV is almost twice as large and sounds noticeably better. My questions: Why does WAV sound more crisp when compared to ALAC? When I stream ALAC or WAV to my SB3 will I hear a difference since the SS encodes as WAV for the SB? Extra info: I can't use the SB3 for a comparison until tomorrow - in-laws are in town. I rarely use my Mac as a sound source. I have a lot of disk space but of course I'd like to save as much as I can. -- kphinney SB3 -> Marantz ZR6001 -> B&W DM602's (considering a Tube DAC) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ kphinney's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10409 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33641 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
