Difference between ACC & Lossless iTunes

[VFN]

I'm using iTunes to burn some mp3 files. I've seen Apple instructions to set import at lossless although the default seems to be AAC. I'm not looking for incredible quality sound or anything just a faithful copy of the files. So what's the best settings and is there a big difference?

Thanks as always,

VFN

 

[Julien]

I'm using iTunes to burn some mp3 files. I've seen Apple instructions to set import at lossless although the default seems to be AAC. I'm not looking for incredible quality sound or anything just a faithful copy of the files. So what's the best settings and is there a big difference?

Thanks as always,

VFN

Burn means to export from iTunes to a CD, USB or.... If you want to export (burn) iTunes files in the MP3 formant it is better to import (rip) them as ALAC (if source is a CD or other lossless). If you import in AAC and then export as MP3's you will compound the quality loss. Going from 1 lossy format (transcoding) to another is a BIG no, no.

If you have MP3 files you want to import into iTunes it is best to do them natively and not in AAC (see lossy transcoding above). You can import them in ALAC without any further loss of quality but the file size will increases for no reason.

If importing CD's I would recommend ALAC. HD space is cheep and always getting cheeper. You can take an ALAC file and transcode into any format you need.

 

[VFN]

Thanks.