FLAC vs Apple lossless

[adriandg]

Hi all

Just wondering if there is much difference in the sound quality of the above two formats. The reason I'm asking is I'm about to convert all of my CD collection to a lossless digital form, ready to put on a NAS for use around the house via the wireless network.

I've tried FLAC and they sound good, but another reason I want to compare it with Apple lossless is I've already converted my CDs to AAC to go on my Ipod, so I could use itunes to convert to lossless.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[chamill]

I use FLAC as it works in Windows Media Player. I have used Apple Lossless before aswell. There is no difference between the sound quality as they are both lossless.

If i remember correctly FLAC produces slightly smaller files.

[JohnG]

I'd be tempted to go the FLAC route as I'm really starting to doubt iTunes these days. They are trying to cram more and more functionality in it for movies and phones and to me it's now far too bloated and may cause other problems. When I tried to load the latest release of iTunes it told me I had to close Outlook first, this is worrying as I don't want it to integrate with Outlook at all. I'm now looking to move away from iTunes for the music I play around the house.
Sorry for the rant

[Autopilot]

Yes, in theory the sound quality should be identical.

ALAC may be played on an iPod, but generally support is much better for FLAC (iPod can be modded to play FLAC anyway).

The main reason for me is that FLAC supports gapless playback perfectly (when used on a device/player the support gapless). So if you have any DJ Mixes, Live gigs, audio books, opera, or any albums with gapless transitions (more than you think) between the odd track, then go for FLAC. ALAC maybe do gapless, but i have heard conflicting reports. Anyone confirm?

Originally Posted by adriandg

put on a NAS for use around the house via the wireless network.

What streaming device to you plan to use? If you are going to buy a Squeezebox then you really want to be using FLAC because it plays FLAC 'natively', which is quite an important factor when choosing a format.

Originally Posted by adriandg

I've already converted my CDs to AAC to go on my Ipod, so I could use itunes to convert to lossless.

I might be interpreting what you mean here wrong, but i think i should add that if you convert AAC (lossy) to ALAC, all that will happen is you end up with a bigger file. The sound quality will not change, the loss in sound quality when using lossy is lost permanently.

[adriandg]

The NAS I was going to get was the Buffalo Terastation live.

As regards using itunes to convert to lossless. I'm not going to convert my AAC's to apple lossless. I'm going to use the original CD's and convert them to lossless using itunes.

Cheers

[graham.myers]

Originally Posted by adriandg

The NAS I was going to get was the Buffalo Terastation live.

As regards using itunes to convert to lossless. I'm not going to convert my AAC's to apple lossless. I'm going to use the original CD's and convert them to lossless using itunes.

Cheers

I've a 1tb Synology NAS and converted all my CDs to ALAC. I can then convert down to AAC for popping onto my ipods. Plus the synology nas has an itunes server build in so it appears on the network for me to stream off. Although has been said not all upnp media devices support alac but at the moment I'm not too fussed about that and that may come as apple bludgeon thier way further into the marketplace.

[lazymatt]

If you're planning on using a Sonos system it can use ALAC or FLAC natively.

The SB3, only supports FLAC natively I believe.

So I would be guided by what home server you want to use, however, as Autopilot has probably mentioned, you can convert between FLAC and ALAC without any loss in quality anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much.

[graham.myers]

Originally Posted by graham.myers

I've a 1tb Synology NAS and converted all my CDs to ALAC. I can then convert down to AAC for popping onto my ipods. Plus the synology nas has an itunes server build in so it appears on the network for me to stream off. Although has been said not all upnp media devices support alac but at the moment I'm not too fussed about that and that may come as apple bludgeon thier way further into the marketplace.

well this has come back to bite me.

I've now built myself a linux server which is currently running twonky and firefly. twonky doesnt support alac hence firefly which is now streaming to my soundbridge. I need twonky to stream to xbox360, ps3 and my new onkyo 905 amp all which need upnp/dnla.

so looking to convert alac to flac which as the previous poster says is easy. Well it isnt It looks like the version of itunes I use to encode the alacs didnt quite get it right. When I use db poweramp to convert them to flac it throws up errors for a number of tracks (but not everyone). If I re-encode using the lastest itunes dmc works.

this is unfortunate as all my tags for the 10000+ tracks are pretty much how I want them and it looks like I'll have to start again

[Autopilot]

Dont panic, i reckon they are probably ok. First try foobar2000 to convert them.

[graham.myers]

ok will give foobar a try

[graham.myers]

is there any linux (I'm using fedora 8) batch programs that'll do the job?

I want initially alac to flac, and then ongoing I want flac to mp3.

I'd rather running the batch conversion on the linux server rather than leaving my pc on all the time.

[Ceejayav]

Can't help with alac to FLAC but this does FLAC 2 MP3 pretty well:

http://robinbowes.com/projects/flac2mp3

HTH