I rip my CDs to AIFF using iTunes, keeping them at 16/44. Would be interested in your comments about reasons I might want to use XLD instead. Thanks!
Well, the main one is that while both iTunes and XLD can employ the Redbook Standard Error Correction routines (which are very robust, by the way), XLD has more robust routines to employ when ripping CDs, and recognizes when they are needed. Sometimes with iTunes, you get a read error, even on a new CD, and it's annoying to be listening to your rip and realize there is an error in (typically) one of the tracks. XLD will re-read, slow down the read speed, and in general is more robust when it comes to accurate rips.
99% of the time iTunes, especially if you enable the Redbook error correction routines, does a perfectly good job. But I don't like 99% ... I want 100% and no worries (= no need to review the rip immediately ... that's helpful if you're doing more than one or two discs at the same session).
Maybe it's not something that newer Mac users are concerned with, but I come from the old PowerPC era (and before, but 680x0 is just not as good due to software and speed) which was absolutely bulletproof with audio. I'm talking 8 channels of live 24/96 recording and monitoring in real time* and not having to use a dedicated machine and zero errors, ever. I mean ever.
When I used my first Intel Mac I was shocked to find dropouts in my live recordings. It took ten years of x86 Macs before they equaled a 400 MHz PPC Mac as far as rock-solid audio reliability goes. Even i7s are just as good, not better. On PPC I never had to monitor, I just did a quick level, watched the screen, and relaxed. Sometimes I would use the same machine for some other sumultaneous task ... yeah, I know. Stupid Mac user, doesn't know how to run an Intel machine. But I honestly didn't expect a problem.
I also buy used CDs and sometimes there are tracks that iTunes just can't rip cleanly. Give the job to XLD and be prepared to have a perfect result. It might take a half hour or even longer, but it will extract a good track eventually in most cases.
So, for me, it's XLD for all rips, it works good and has decent iTunes compatibility. For a Redbook CD I will rip to 16/44 Apple Lossless. I also use that format on my old-school Classic 160 iPod. They are always perfect.
Although it's impossible to avoid on the webs, I don't have any mp3 files to speak of on my iTunes Music Library hard drive(s). What is there are some files where the originals are mixed down to mp3 / etc as part of the project, but I have lossy compressed formats set to open and play in QuickTime player (the actual engine iTunes uses) rather than iTunes if double-clicked. In that way they are never copied to the iTunes library or added to any iTunes track list.
* I had a couple of different Mac towers, 400 to 867 MHz PPC G4's, with an RME Digi96/8 sound card; this was basically 12 to 20 years ago. In-Studio and live recording in clubs.
