Best quality from a CD to iTunes?

Apple Lossless, WAV and AIFF are are identical in quality when RIPping from a CD.

Apple Lossless will be about 50%-60% size of the original. WAV and AIFF are same size as original.

These three formats are higher quality than AAC or MP3.

iTunes Store sells 256 kbps AAC, which is about 10% of the original size (if RIPped from a CD).

256 kbps AAC is also the default for RIPping CDs.

It offers a good compromise between quality and size and is what the majority of iTunes users stick with.

What you do depends on what you are looking to do and how/where you will listen to yoru music but most importantly, it depends on what sounds good to you!

So Apple Losless is higher quality and bigger file size?

Than 256 KBPS AAC, yes.

Though you should RIP a few CDs at 256 AAC and listen to them before you simply go with ALAC (aka Apple Lossles Audio Codec).

buddy39914 wrote:

If I bought a whole album from iTunes, and then I rip it from the album Cd and replace it in Apple Lossless, will It be higher quality than the one I bought off iTunes? I dont mind about the size, Im kind of an audiophile. Just higher quality.

No. Expanding a lossy file to a bigger format does not improve the audio quality.

If you are an audiophile, consider buying your downloads from one of the online music stores that sell in a lossless format.

If you rip it losslessly from the original CD, it will be better quality than a 256 file.

Those are big files! Typical file sizes for a 4 minute song, using default settings, are about 8 MB in 256, 20 MB in ALAC, and 40 MB in WAV.

As Chris said earlier, you can do a listening comparison and see if lossless makes a difference given your ears and your equipment and your listening conditions. Audiophiles may fell differently, but most people are happy with 256.

Yeah, go first class for the PInk Floyd tracks. 🙂