Ipod (incl Itouch) and AIFF

kyyuan · « **on:** 15 Jan 2010, 10:02 pm »

Question for your apple experts...

If you are running a full mac setup using the AIFF format, are you still syncing to your Ipod? If so, doesn't that mean your Ipod device can hold far fewer songs vis-a-vis apple lossless?

Thanks,

Ken

ted_b · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Jan 2010, 11:09 pm »

Yes, AIFF is not compressed; Apple Lossless is. Some still use AIFF in their iPod's for the chance of slightly higher fidelity (debatable, arguable, theoretical) or the mere fact that they don't want to carry/store multliple copies/formats and use AIFF for their home music server. My $.02 is that even if AIFF has slightly more fidelity than it's lossless counterpart, the iPod/headphone paradigm is not the best platform to discern this on....go for Apple Lossless or even lossy high bit rate AAC (not bad at all for travel).

srb · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Jan 2010, 11:50 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 15 Jan 2010, 11:09 pm

....go for Apple Lossless or even lossy high bit rate ALAC (not bad at all for travel).

ALAC = Apple Lossless Audio Codec. Did you mean to say "lossy high bit rate AAC"?

Steve

kyyuan · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Jan 2010, 12:10 am »

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. However, is it possible to have AIFF on home music server and sync lossless on the Ipod?

Quote from: ted_b on 15 Jan 2010, 11:09 pm

Yes, AIFF is not compressed; Apple Lossless is. Some still use AIFF in their iPod's for the chance of slightly higher fidelity (debatable, arguable, theoretical) or the mere fact that they don't want to carry/store multliple copies/formats and use AIFF for their home music server. My $.02 is that even if AIFF has slightly more fidelity than it's lossless counterpart, the iPod/headphone paradigm is not the best platform to discern this on....go for Apple Lossless or even lossy high bit rate ALAC (not bad at all for travel).

srb · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 Jan 2010, 12:36 am »

Quote from: kyyuan on 16 Jan 2010, 12:10 am

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. However, is it possible to have AIFF on home music server and sync lossless on the Ipod?

Yes, but there is no way to synch and convert on the fly. You will need to have both the AIFF and the Apple Lossless versions on the server. You can select all of your AIFF files and create an Apple Lossless version (creating a copy).

You can then make a Smart Playlist for each filetype and use the AIFF filtered playlist for server music playback, and the Apple Lossless filtered playlist for manual iPod synching.

Whether it's worth the trouble is up to you, so I would carefully audition some pairs of testfiles to see if you can hear a difference. You may end up deciding to use Apple Lossless as your only format. If you decide to keep both versions on server, you will have to create the Lossless copies each time you add new music. Having both versions will increase the size of your library by 60+ percent, and you may also want to modify your backup routine to only backup one filetype.

Steve