Audio quality of various formats

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Level 1

9 points

Audio quality of various formats

My iTunes library includes many different file formats (Apple Lossless, AAC, MP3, Wav, MPEG audio file, M4A, etc.). I want to export all of them in the highest resolution possible for listening on a high resolution audio system. Some of these formats have different bits/second encoding; how do I determine what that is? I believe Apple Lossless is also known as ALAC, the Apple variation of FLAC. My audio system won't read ALAC but will read high bit rate MP3, as well as FLAC.

Windows, 10

Posted on Jan 25, 2019 10:32 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 25, 2019 11:42 AM in response to MTVhike

Hi,

Read this support doc https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204310. You can create 320 Kbps mp3s from ALAC. The original file is not changed.

Jim

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Answer 2

Jan 25, 2019 11:03 AM in response to MTVhike

Hi,

There is no point in converting mp3, AAC or other lossy files. You’ll only get larger files, not improved sound quality. You can easily convert ALAC and WAV to FLAC without losing any quality but be aware that iTunes can’t play FLAC.

Jim

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Answer 3

MTVhike Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 25, 2019 11:08 AM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

Thanks, Jim. Unfortunately, some of my devices, including a car, can't read ALAC, some can't read FLAC, but all can read MP3, which I encode at 320KHz bitrate using Foobar or Audacity. I want to take the ALAC files in my itunes library and create a high bitrate MP3 from them, but I don't know the bitrate iTunes uses in its conversion, and I don't want to overwrite the ALAC file in my Library.

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Audio quality of various formats

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