[zybar]

Has anybody compared FLAC and ALE (Apple Lossless)?

I am interested since I need to rip my cd's for use with my SB2.

If ALE sounds as good as FLAC, I would just use ALE so that I can still manage everything with iTunes and use my iPod.

FWIW, in previous tests I couldn't hear a difference between FLAC and WAV files.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

George

[dvdvideo]

Flac is lossless, thus inherinatly it will sound identical to wav files.  Where as aac is a lossy format, it will change the way a file will sound.

I used flac to rip my cd collection.   I like knowing all my songs are cd quality and not compressed or changed.

[brj]

I suspect that zybar may have meant the "Apple Lossless Encoder" (ALE), instead of AAC.  Same easy iTunes integration, lossless encoding...

I'm not at the point where I can compare such codecs myself yet, but here is a pretty good comparison of various codecs, along with quite a few good links.

Edit: Actually, the codec is ALAC - Apple Lossless Audio Codec.

Edit 2: It seems that there is an open source ALAC decoder as well...

[zybar]

I suspect that zybar may have meant the "Apple Lossless Encoder" (ALE), instead of AAC.  Same easy iTunes integration, lossless encoding...

You are correct.    

I will change the subject line.

George

[brj]

Oops... check my edits first!

(ALE is the encoder, ALAC is the codec)

[John Ashman]

FLAC = lossless = Apple Lossless Compression

By definition, there is no difference except for how it is encrypted and read.

[Jon L]

George, there is freeware apple lossless decoder, so it's easy to convert apple lossless into others like Flac, using dbpoweramp, for example.

However, I'm not aware of any freeware apple lossless encoder, which means one must use iTunes software to encode to apple lossless.  For CD's, wav, or WMA lossless, one can put them in iTunes, select them, and press "convert to apple lossless."  

Unfortunately, iTunes will not accept Flac into its libary, so if one wants to preserve ID tags (which is a must), one needs to first convert Flac to WMA lossless (preserves ID tags UNLIKE wav), then use iTunes to covert WMA lossless to apple lossless.  This is a pain.

So for people who want to use iTunes to manage music, it's much better to keep the core files in apple lossless b/c it's much easier to go apple lossless->Flac than the other way, if one needs Flac later on.  

As far as sound quality, When comparing CD->apple lossless->Flac  to CD->Flac, both Flac's playing on Foobar, I couldn't reliably tell them apart sound-wise, so I think it's safe to start with apple lossless files.  

Then again, I still far prefer the sound of Flac playing on Foobar over apple lossless playing on iTunes on PC (not Mac), and I haven't used SB2, so I don't know if SB2 "equalizes" iTunes with Foobar for PC..

[kfr01]

Does the Apple format have some sort of messed up DRM?  Or any annoying DRM, for that matter?

[Ferdi]

Hi, ALE has nothing to do with DRM. As far as I know, it is still not possible to buy music in ALE format from iTMS so it is all stuff you have to rip yourself. That should leave you without DRM unless you go through the trouble of putting it in yourself  

I am considering the same issues at the moment.

[MonkeyK]

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?HowtoBestAudioQuality

From an ipod perspective, ALEC is the way to go.  From a SB2 perspective FLAC is the way to go.  
Since SB2 converts ALEC->FLAC on the server, I would just use Apple Lossless. (unless you are thinking about getting rid of the ipod anyway).

[jp1]

What is the point of messing around with FLAC if Apple lossless is 'completely lossless' and completely convertible with any other lossless format? am i missing something?

[konut]

With the SqueezeBox, FLAC uses less bandwidth if used wirelessly with less chance of lost connection. If you have a wired connection there is no advantage.

[jp1]

awesome. the wired connection is the one i would go with anyway to eliminate drop outs.
thanks so much.

[mshan]

Does the Squeezebox 3 change Apple Lossless  to another format for playback or does it playback Apple Lossless without any transcoding?

Also, anyone know if it can play protected AAC from the iTunes store?

[PhilNYC]

Does the Squeezebox 3 change Apple Lossless  to another format for playback or does it playback Apple Lossless without any transcoding?

Slimserver converts Apple Lossless to FLAC before sending it to the SB3...

[jp1]

is that good or bad?

[PhilNYC]

is that good or bad?

There are two schools of thought on this;  on the one hand, some people will say that any processing has the potential of introducing jitter or other types of artifacts that will be detrimental to the sound.  On the other hand, others will say that as long as the data remains intact (ie. it is lossless), it shouldn't matter.

In the case of the SB, I am in the latter camp (it doesn't matter), mostly because of the fact that since the data is being transmitted via ethernet or wireless (in my case, its wireless), we're talking about data packets being sent over the network...so the data is being re-constructed into a buffer at the SB regardless of what format you use.

I use Apple Lossless with my SB2 because I'm driving my music off iTunes on a Mac...if I was using a Windows machine, I'd probably go FLAC...

[jp1]

next question:

with regards to ethernet.
I already have a lynksis router that i am using for VOIP (Vonage) and a cable modem.
It has 2 open slots. can I reuse this router for a wired connection for the SB3?

[JohnnyLightOn]

Definitely - that's how you SHOULD hook it up.

[jp1]

you are the best.