[K Shep]

I will begin ripping my CD collection to the hard drive of my new Mac Mini this weekend. I have been advised by my most trust worthy audiophile to rip using AIFF codec. However, the last 2 gentlemen I shared with suggested Apple Lossless. I will be using my iPhone and an iPod Touch as my UI (remote) via iTunes.

My biggest concern is sound quality. I am not concerned with cover art. Please advise the features and benefits of each codec. Thank you in advance.

Kirk

PS. File size is not a concern. Thank you Mike.

[Mike Nomad]

AIFF will minimize potential playback heartache. If file size isn't a concern, I would up sample the rip to 16/48.

[Quiet Earth]

Like you, I would rather worry about getting a good rip instead of the file size. I also rip mine as AIFF since that is what it is to begin with on my iMac. Make sure you "check for errors" under preferences, and turn all of the other "sound enhancing" features off.

I would up sample the rip to 16/48.

I wouldn't do this because the sample rate conversion doesn't sound good to me. I like my red book to be 16/44.1  .

[MtBiker]

+1 on not resampling.  If you're really concerned with playback issues with your Ayre DAC, then import a few albums into iTunes as ALAC to test.  If you've already one a bunch as AIFF, you can select a bunch, right click and convert to ALAC.  You will now have both formats to compare...then just delete the AIFF versions.

[K Shep]

Thank you Biker,

I have completed the task of ripping my collection.  IMO AIFF is the way to go. 

I am still figuring out iTunes though, not the easiest.  Compilation albums are a pain (they list by artist) and some albums are not recognized.  I still have more to learn.

Kirk

[pardales]

How long have you had your Ayre DAC and how do you like it?

[K Shep]

How long have you had your Ayre DAC and how do you like it?

Less than one month.  I love the convenience, USB from my Mac Mini.

The DAC sounds glorious!  I had never realized "break-in" until this component.  I shared in another thread that it sounded poor out of the box.  It has about 250 hours on it and I compared the sound of the DAC to a original CD that is ripped to AIFF and the Ayre now sounds more airy.  Longer decay.  Are the two descriptions I have to offer.  I will write a review once I have more hours and stop to do a serious comparison. 

Kirk