CD Burning Question

Todd

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Mar 21, 2010, 7:39:06 AM3/21/10

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I am downsizing my CD collection, and burning them into my Mac. I listen
more now than ever because of iTunes. Question is, what's the
best/preferred format? I have gone to using Apple Lossless, rather than
MP3 because I prefer to keep more of the music intact.

Next question - since I am downsizing, what about purchasing new music.
I can buy a CD from Amazon, say, in the standard disc version, or
download the MP3 version. Does anyone sell lossless versions?

I appreciate your thoughts.

Todd

Steve Fouts

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Mar 25, 2010, 11:24:24 PM3/25/10

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In article <vznpn.3856$Ek4....@newsfe24.iad>,
Todd <tsw630...@deleteCox.net> wrote:

Most of the services are currently selling MP3s at 256 kbps. Apple also
sells .aac at the same bit rate, some services sell .wma. I am not aware
of anyone selling lossless. Apple claims that .aac is superior to MP3 at
the same bit rate, but they would.

A raw CD is uncompressed audio at 1440 kbps. When I convert to Apple
lossless I usually get roughly 1000 kbps, so the compression whacks
about a third of the file size without losing fidelity.

I'm not enough of a sound engineer to know how audible the differences
between 1000 kbps and 256 kbps would be. I have a feeling it depends
entirely upon what sort of music you listen to and how you listen.

Todd

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Mar 26, 2010, 8:47:21 AM3/26/10

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With storage so cheap these days, I thought the lossless might be the
best option; however, it certainly eats up space on an iPod and keeps my
playlists short! Thanks for your reply.

Wolf K

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Mar 26, 2010, 9:02:00 AM3/26/10

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Steve Fouts wrote:
> In article <vznpn.3856$Ek4....@newsfe24.iad>,

[...]

> I'm not enough of a sound engineer to know how audible the differences
> between 1000 kbps and 256 kbps would be. I have a feeling it depends
> entirely upon what sort of music you listen to and how you listen.

It depends even more on the player's electronics, speaker mechanics, the
listening environment, and listener's ears. On an iPod you won't hear
any difference, on a bookshelf sized "mini system" you might hear a
difference if you turn off the bass boost and the house is quiet, a car
is an even worse listening environment than an iPod, etc. Add to that
the fact that most people under 30 have wrecked their ears by cranking
up the volume on their portable CD/MP3 players, and 256kbps is more than
enough.

IOW, if you don't intend to play the music on your old stereo system, it
won't make a noticeable difference.

And on that cheerful note, I remain

yours truly,
wolf k. ;-)

Todd

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Mar 27, 2010, 8:24:20 AM3/27/10

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My listening environment is varied - I listen on my computer, my iPod,
my car, and my Bose Lifestyle system, which allows me to burn in about
300 CDs to play. I change these out on occasion, and that's really
where i don't want to lose the fidelity of my music.

Wolf K

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Mar 27, 2010, 9:39:40 AM3/27/10

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Todd wrote:
> My listening environment is varied - I listen on my computer, my iPod,
> my car, and my Bose Lifestyle system, which allows me to burn in about
> 300 CDs to play. I change these out on occasion, and that's really
> where i don't want to lose the fidelity of my music.

Well, in that case use the least lossy method. You'll just not get as
much stuff on a disc.

FWIW, IMO it's past time for a music system to read DVDs. Are there any
such out there?

cheers,
wolf k.