what is the best format to import CDs in?

Hey applemaisie!

I spend a lot of time importing my vinyl LP's and what format you choose depends on what you are interested in hearing. The .aiff is an uncompressed format, so the files will be very large and is why there isn't much more than a single album on a CD. Unless you have some real need to keep the CD files in the original format, .aiff's (which are the CD file format) are a waste of space on your system.

When you go to import your music into iTunes, you can set the encoder to some different formats. The default for iTunes right now is AAC, which plays on iPhones, iPads and iPods - of course, as it's Apple's format - but if you get a Sony digital Walkman or any other kind of portable player that takes files, you'll want them to be in the non-proprietary .mp3 format.

Since you're asking on the .aiffs, I'll assume you want to go the highest quality setting on the .mp3's - at this rate they end up about 1/4th the size of the CD files. The thing is, this bitrate will give you more than enough to listen to, you'll be hard pressed - if you're over 30 - to tell the difference between the .mp3 and an .aiff..

You can set that in the iTunes preferences in the General, go down to the 'When you insert a CD:' and set that radio button to 'Ask to import CD' then over to the Import Settings..

A popup will.. pop up.

I suggest Import Using the .mp3 encoder (as it's a universal format for any digital player)

Put the 'Setting:' to custom and a second popup will appear.

Top to bottom in that window, set

Stereo Bit Rate: 320 kbs

Tick the Variable Bit Rate Encoding box - (this will give you higher bitrate playback in parts of a song with lots of complex, different sounds, and less when the music goes softer or to fewer instruments or voices - the varation of data bitrate in a song can be 480kbps at the high end to 320kbps at the low)

Quality: Highest

Sample Rate: 44.100kHz (this is the sample rate of ALL music CD's that bear the square music CD logo so there's no reason to use the higher rate - the data just is not there)

Channels: Stereo

Stereo Mode: Joint Stereo (this makes it so that if one channel - the left or the right - has a data corruption, you have it's duplicate on the other side so you don't lose stereo)

Tick the smart Encoding Adjustments and Filter Frequencies Below 10 Hz.

Click on the Okay button to set those, and of course, always tick the

Use Error Correction when reading Audio CD's box on that first popup, as that can get those pesky skips and pops from old CD's to go away..

The songs from the itunes music store will not be adjusted by these settings - so you get what they sell you there - last time I checked, I think they were AAC 160kbps, though they may have higher, better sounding rates now.

Cheers!

Deb.

Most purchased music from the iTunes Store comes as AAC with a bit rate of 256 kbps.

Your question about the best way to import from a CD can be answered many ways depending on how much hard drive space you have and the quality of the devices you'll be listening to the music on and also the quality of your own ears.

I personally import all music as AIFF files. This is the same quality as the CD. These also take up the most space on your hard drive. AIFF file generally have a bit rate of 1411 kbps.

I don't want to use those large files on my iPhone or iPad so in iTunes, I have it set to automatically import the songs from my Library to those devices as AAC 256 kbps files.

Deborah Terreson wrote:

you'll be hard pressed - if you're over 30 - to tell the difference between the .mp3 and an .aiff..

Totally disagree with this one point. I'm over 30, 57 to be exact. I have always had a good listening ear for music. For my iMac, I have a pair of Audioengine A5+ speakers. For my home stereo I have a pair of vintage 1979 B&W DM2 Series II speakers with a 120 Watt Rotel Amp. I stream music via Airport Express to the B&W/Rotel.

I can easily tell the difference between an AAC 256 kbps and an AIFF file streaming to the B&W/Rotel system.

To the Audioengine A5+ speakers, the difference is more suttle between AAC 256 and AIFF, but there is a difference and it's found in staging and depth of the highs and lows.

So in my opinion, it comes down to ones own ears and the quality of equipment.

My understanding is that the mp3 equivelent to an AAC 256 kbps file is mp3 320 kbps. So in my world, the minimum file kinds are AAC 256 kbps and for the highest quality as well as for archival purposes, AIFF

P.S. An argument that will go on for ever 😝

itunes store music is ACC i believe, you can chose how you want them imported in preferences, advanced, import there are 5 formats to chose from. Personally I use mp3 but if you are going to be using them in any sort of project i recomend AIFF

LOL! Yeah, it could!

But for the fact you've a really nice setup - and you're NOT listening to vinyl?

Hmmm. I'm doing all my ripping with an Avid (M-Audio Delta) Audiophile 24/96 card and I can hear the difference in the audio-fidelity between vinyl and digital.

No matter if I go with FLAC and basically take the limit that the card will offer, the quality just isn't the same. The digital misses the warmth and fullness of the vinyl. With that as a given, and given that the average user has nowhere near an audiophile system, the difference between aiffs and high quality 320 k VBR .mp3 is negligible.

Vinyl, OTOH..

Ooooo! Shame to waste those lovely old speakers and robust amp of yours on digital..

🙂

Deborah Terreson wrote:

Ooooo! Shame to waste those lovely old speakers and robust amp of yours on digital..

🙂

I'm sure your right. But I'm embarrassed to say I stopped listening to vinyl when I bought my 2nd generation Sony CD player in 1984. Considering how much I like to listen to music, it is strange I've never had a turntable set up as an alternative(since 1984). But I have friends with turntables and vinyl and I get to appreciate thru them.

As for streaming to the B&W/Rotel via Airport Express, it still sounds better to put a CD in and listen directly. I also have a very sweet Rotel CD player.

I completely agree with you about the warmth with vinyl vs CD. And could probably take it another step and talk about the difference in warmth between tube and solid state. The only fact I think most people could agree with is tube and vinyl was probably the best / solid state and vinyl next / CD and other compressed formats the worst.

For some reason I'm feeling nostalgic thinking about growing up listening to my Dad's reel-to-reel while he was playing Polkas and Classical.