Can I convert exisiting itunes files to Apple Lossless, or do I need original CD?

[Cathrin]

Being new to iPods, I enthusiastically starting importing all my CDs into my itunes library, naively assuming that the default setting would be the best quality. Duh! I should have checked first, of course, as I now realise the reverse is true. Having painstakingly imported about 20 CDs I suddenly heard about Apple Lossless. As I mainly intend to play my iPod collection over my hi-fi, I'm guessing I'd really notice the loss in quality if I don't upgrade the files to Apple Lossless. So here are my questions, with huge thanks in advance if anyone can help: Am I right in thinking Apple Lossless really is necessary to get decent quality on hi-fi speakers?

Assuming yes to that, do I need to delete everything I've put on so far and start from scratch with the original CDs? If I try to convert the exisitng lower-quality file to Apple Lossless, will anything be lost in the process?

Finally, I can see the lossless files are going to be huge, and I'll quickly fill the thing up if I use this format. What's the most organized way of storing everything....do people store the original files on the hard drive or an external drive and just move them on and off the iPod as needed?

Again, many thanks if anyone can advise.

[LV426]

If you convert your (already degraded) files to Apple Lossless, you won't lose anything MORE than you already have. But you won't recover what's already been lost. To get truly lossless, you'd need to revert to the original sources.

As for whether you would notice the quality loss with your existing conversions........have you tried listening yet? And if yes, do you notice? The extent to which you might "hear" the loss is determined by what bitrate was used in the conversion. The losses at 320kbps (MP3 or AAC) are (I'd contend) totally undetectable. Lower rates, maybe. 80kbps definitely......

[Cathrin]

Thank you Nigel, I appreciated your advice. Yes, I thought it was unlikely there was any way of getting back what has been lost. I do have pretty critical ears, and I'm going to be listening over speakers, so I guess the way to go is to import everything in Apple Lossless and maybe use an external hard drive to store it all, then just pile everything that fits onto the (80GB) iPod and take it from there. When I start running out of space I'll start taking it down to 320kbps AAC. Am I right in thinking that 80GB in Apple Lossless = about 3,000 songs?

[LFC_SL]

Indeed. ALAC would mean roughly just over 3000 '4 minute' songs

I would add though that if you buy another external hard drive, you could always have two copies of your songs - one HD containing lossless and the other HD containing all your songs in a lossy format. Then you can retire your CDs as archival backups

I appreciate it could take a while to get there (and don't I know it ) but I am thinking long term

[Cathrin]

Originally Posted by LFC_SL

Indeed. ALAC would mean roughly just over 3000 '4 minute' songs

I would add though that if you buy another external hard drive, you could always have two copies of your songs - one HD containing lossless and the other HD containing all your songs in a lossy format. Then you can retire your CDs as archival backups
I appreciate it could take a while to get there (and don't I know it ) but I am thinking long term

Brilliant! That sounds like the perfect solution. Crikey, that's all my evenings sorted for the next couple of years then.... but I guess it's worth the effort if it really means I end up with a lossless version of all my CDs. Does ALAC literally mean lossless, i.e. a perfect replica of what's on the CD?

Thanks for being so helpful, it's very much appreciated.

[LFC_SL]

Yes, lossless formats (e.g. Apple lossless, flac, WMA lossless) do not remove data from the audio stream, unlike lossy formats (e.g. MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG)

At this point though, I want to point out hardware compatibility. Just be sure to check whichever solution you go for as a home music solution; hi-fi, digital streamer, and for a portable DAP, you need to bear in mind you need to make sure they can play the format(s) you choose!

For example, on the portable music player front, MP3 is universal, despite having royalties attached to it, whereas WMA, AAC and OGG are not supported by all

[Cathrin]

This is really helpful, thanks so much again. Re compatibility, I'm planning to use an iPod classic (80GB) plugged in to hi-fi speakers initially, but am considering a Bose Sounddock as I've heard good things about those (and I walked past one in John Lewis which sounded superb!) As regards storing the itunes library on an external HD, is there anything I need to keep in mind when buying the HD itself? Anything I need to look out for or beware of?

Sorry if some of these questions sound really dumb. I'm new to all this and am very much finding my feet!

[LFC_SL]

Here are two recent-ish threads on the Bose sound dock; link 1 and 2. I can't offer an opinion on it I'm afraid

With regards to hard drives, you will probably have to buy a 3.5" external HDD. They need an ac socket, but cost~GB wise give you more GB and are cheaper than portable 2.5" drives, but they don't need an ac. Something like this, but that's just a quick lazy search. I prefer Seagate... as my at home we have 4 Seagates which have been running for 3-4 years no problems