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iPod Apple Lossless to AAC = CD to AAC?

B

bchamorro

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have my music collection ripped in Apple Lossless (about 400 CDs), but I want to convert them to AAC 256 VBR for my iPod.

Is converting from Apple Lossless to AAC the same quality as ripping from CD to AAC?
 
What realityking said, with an explanation...

Apple Lossless files are just that, lossless. The Apple Lossless codec stores a bit-for-bit copy of the original waveform, in a rather efficient way. No audio signal detail is lost. Thus, transcoding from Lossless to AAC VBR gives the same result as ripping the original CD to AAC VBR. Many users do this for their iPods, especially for non-Classic iPods.
 
How would this work from a song management perspective? You will store two copies of each song - one in Apple Lossless, the other in 256k AAC? How will this appear within iTunes? How will it know to send only the 256k files to the iPod?
 
Wotan31 said:
How would this work from a song management perspective? You will store two copies of each song - one in Apple Lossless, the other in 256k AAC? How will this appear within iTunes? How will it know to send only the 256k files to the iPod?
Click to expand...

Yes each song will appear twice in iTunes.

What you do is make a "Smart Album" where the criteria is "AAC" format and another smart album for the lossless version. Every time you bild a play list you are going to have to built two playlists. One for the AAC and one for the lossless versions

My iPod Shuffle has a check box on the configuration screen that offers to convert tracks to 128K AAC as they are downloaded automatically. This is great because I don't have to keep two version of each song in iTunes. I think Apple should have this for every iPod. I like tolisten to lossless when I'm homebecause I have some good stereo equipment but the iPod is not good enough to show up the difference between AAC and lossless
 
alphaod said:
Why would you do some an atrocious thing
Click to expand...

Battery life. Battery usage is roughly proportional to the number of megabytes you are playing. Apple lossless will reduce battery usage quite a lot.

And if he's got a 4 GB iPod, that's not a lot in lossless.
 
Alright, thanks a lot guys.

One more thing. Would you recommend using 256 VBR or 256 CBR?
 
ChrisA said:
My iPod Shuffle has a check box on the configuration screen that offers to convert tracks to 128K AAC as they are downloaded automatically. This is great because I don't have to keep two version of each song in iTunes. I think Apple should have this for every iPod. I like tolisten to lossless when I'm homebecause I have some good stereo equipment but the iPod is not good enough to show up the difference between AAC and lossless
Click to expand...

I agree entirely. My iPhone is the 4GB version, and even with the majority of my library in 128kbps AAC I can't fit very much. With most songs on iTunes being offered in 256kbps iTunes Plus these days, I'm getting even fewer songs on it. I don't need ALAC or 256kbps AAC when listening to my iPhone with earbuds but I'd like to have my home library as such. The ability to sync 128kbps versions to my mobile devices would be very welcome.
 
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