iPod Audiophile and Nano (if that's possible)

[GermanSuplex]

I'm not sure what you mean by "equipment listening tests". A blind ABX test is a software-based program that hides the identity of two audio types for blind comparison. For instance, in foobar, you can take either a lossy and lossless track, or two lossy files. (For instance, you can compare a lossy and lossless file, two mp3's of different bitrates, or an AAC file and mp3 file).

You can use whatever equipment you want to conduct the listening test.. something from an audio-out port on the PC, speakers hooked up to USB... whatever you want. foobar hides the identity of the files. You have A, B, X & Y. Two of them are one file and two are the other. You go through each one and then determine if A is X or Y, and whether B is X or Y. You are either right or wrong. They're your ears, if you can tell a difference, then you should be able to pick the right one and it will tell you the probability of whether you're guessing or not. You do this multiple times to see whether you can truly tell a difference or are just guessing. The test isn't about the equipment so much as it is your ears. You can use cheap earbuds or a multi-thousand dollar speaker system, ir an expensive pair of headphones.

I think some tests just have it setup to where A is one file, B is one file, and X is a file, and you choose which file is X: A or B. (Hence the term ABX test).

There's really nothing subjective about it, regardless of which blind test you do. You listen to the files on whatever equipment you want, and then determine which track is which.

 

[alphaod]

Thanks, but I don't think you're understanding my question. If the AAC-->Lossless conversion option in iTunes doesn't result in Lossless, what is its purpose?

It's for converting other files that are not lossy like AIFF and WAV.

 

[GermanSuplex]

It's for converting other files that are not lossy like AIFF and WAV.

They mean why is the option available for lossy tracks. Like, if you choose ALAC as your importing preference, why isn't the "Convert to Apple Lossless" option grayed out when you right-click an mp3 or AAC file, since converting it to ALAC only changes the file type and increases the size, but doesn't result in a higher quality file.

The option is there for someone who wants it. What purpose they would have I don't know, perhaps some people are obsessive and want all their files to be the same format, even lossy audio, so converting it to Apple Lossless allows them to retain the quality of the lossy file while converting it to the format their lossless tracks are in.

 

[epo]

epo- The existence of a headphone socket doesn't imply lack of high end listening. Take a look at expert reviews of quality headphones, and most will confirm that they provide much more accurate sound than most speaker systems on the market.

I was too terse, having censored an earlier draft. The iPod's (and iPhone's) headphone socket is widely known to be below par, now taking a signal via the dock adaptor into a headphone amp is a different matter and may be the basis for less ridiculous audiophile pronouncements.

 

[wywern209]

Hi all, and sorry if this has been discussed already endlessly, but am new to the Nano and iTunes.

I consider myself an audiophile with some serious home audio equipment, along with a decent CD/SACD collection. With my new Mac Mini 2.26 320gb HD, decided to import about 15 CDs to iTunes. Purchased a 5G Nano (16gb) and Klipsch Image S4 earbuds to go with. After synching the Nano from iTunes, started experimenting with the sound on the Nano.

Well, the default AAC 256kb VBR just doesn't cut it. Since I listen mostly to classical music, it was painfully apparent that the AAC files lose much of the ambience, soundstage, and multi-dimensionality. The music was flat, clipped, and uninteresting due to the huge amount of information loss.

Now I know the Nano is not really meant for high-end audio listening, but after converting the same iTunes files from AAC to Apple Lossless and re-syncing, the music on the Nano was actually listenable and enjoyable for the first time. Much of the soundstage returned.

So, my question is how many out there are using Apple Lossless on their iPods for the same reason? Even with the huge amount of space Apple Lossless takes on the Nano (16gb), I think about 30-40 CDs can be managed and stored there. Then when the time comes and the Nano fills up, the plan is to delete the files from the Nano and re-sync with a new set of Apple Lossless files from iTunes, as a way to rotate-in new music while keeping high quality sound.

Anyone doing it this way?

instead of using ALAC, i would suggest ripping in WAV because that keeps most if not all of the song info from the CD. if u plan on listening toa lot of lossless music, then perhaps a 64gb touch is the way to go. lost of space and big screen. the only gripe i have with this is, you can't change songs etc while it is in ur pocket. Bear in mind, to some people they find the sound quality of the ipods to be inferior to that of products from sony etc.

 

[GermanSuplex]

instead of using ALAC, i would suggest ripping in WAV because that keeps most if not all of the song info from the CD. if u plan on listening toa lot of lossless music, then perhaps a 64gb touch is the way to go. lost of space and big screen. the only gripe i have with this is, you can't change songs etc while it is in ur pocket. Bear in mind, to some people they find the sound quality of the ipods to be inferior to that of products from sony etc.

ALAC, in terms of sound quality, is equal to WAV.

ALAC, FLAC and other compressed lossless audio formats take the lossless audio like WAV or AIFF and compress them down in size, but not quality. When the file is played back all the original data is there.

ALAC is superior to me because it uses much less space and supports tagging right within iTunes. FLAC is great as well, but if you're using iTunes for most of your everyday pruposes, I suggest Apple Lossless.

 

[Jolly Jimmy]

instead of using ALAC, i would suggest ripping in WAV because that keeps most if not all of the song info from the CD

ALAC and WAV are both lossless formats, they are equal in quality. One cannot be more lossless than the other. The huge advantage for using ALAC over WAV or AIFF (for listening to music with iTunes) is the greatly reduced hard drive space files take up.

 

[wywern209]

ALAC, in terms of sound quality, is equal to WAV.

ALAC, FLAC and other compressed lossless audio formats take the lossless audio like WAV or AIFF and compress them down in size, but not quality. When the file is played back all the original data is there.

ALAC is superior to me because it uses much less space and supports tagging right within iTunes. FLAC is great as well, but if you're using iTunes for most of your everyday pruposes, I suggest Apple Lossless.

how is it possible for all the info to be there? because i ripped some ALAC stuff from CDs. i got like maybe 950kbps files. how is that comparable to the 1440kbps bitrate of WAV?

 

[benlangdon]

hey so where is there an abx test for music.
i tried finding one last night and could only find one for colors which was ridiculous.
it was like here are two colors, then i clicked to see the difference and on the rgb color scale like blue was two points higher than the other, which is impossible to tell.

i also read and agree with this statement though. if you take an abx test and the only difference between the two songs is at like 50 sec in and is like the sound of a tiny splash cymbal in the background its retarded to try and take an abx test. but if its continuous in quality loss its doable

 

[jacjustjac]

RE: Why is there an option to "Convert to Lossless" when selecting a LOSSY file?

The answer is simple. The option to "Create xxx Version" is determined by your settings in iTunes' preferences.

If "Import Settings" in the "General" tab is set to "Import using: AAC Encoder", then when you right click a song, the option will say Create AAC Version.

If it is set to "Apple Lossless Encoder", then the right-click option will say Create Apple Lossless Version.

iTunes is not aware what encoder is Lossy or Lossless, it only provides an option to re-encode a file using the same format you have chosen for importing CDs.

Just wanted to clear this, up once and for all.

 

[flopticalcube]

how is it possible for all the info to be there? because i ripped some ALAC stuff from CDs. i got like maybe 950kbps files. how is that comparable to the 1440kbps bitrate of WAV?

Because its compressed. Compression, like a zip file, can be expanded to its original size on playback.