Will ipod classic 160 GB play 24 Bit audio at 48Khz?

You can sync 24bit files to your iPod classic, but they are truncated to 16bit on playback. Older iPods struggle with this (I have a 5.5 gen that sounds wonderful) and will sometimes skip during playback with these files.

So, anything higher resolution that 48kHz / 16bit will be truncated, brutally so, BTW, so you are better off re-sampling the files to 44.1/16 or 48/16.

Yes, iPod does play 24 Bit audio at 48Khz, but only in the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) format. Anything higher than 48Khz it does not play (well, I tried 96Khz and a message came up that it's not supported. I haven't tried 88Khz). I tried 24/48 WAV and the same comment came up. So only ALAC for 24 bit/48K on the iPod.

You know that Apple doesn't respond to questions on this forum, right?

Why don't you just CALL AND ASK APPLE, if you don't want any advice from other users? That's what this forum is for...

So is there an definite answer here??? Does the latest iPod Classic 160GB support 24/44.1 and 24/48? or does it play in 16/44.1 and 16/48 whatever the bit/samplerate displayed via iTunes is? It's simply a technical capability so there have to be a straightforward answer from Apple, not opinions...

@AnnieWalker - see my earlier post. I have done quite a bit of reading and experimentation with my iPod Classic, as well as my iPad. These devices will sync but not playback 24-bit audio w/o truncation to 16 bits - period. I also know that my iPad will play 48kHz sample rate tracks (I've connected it to a USB DAC via the CCK, which reports the correct sample rate as 48 or 44.1).

I am not sure what the iPod classic does with 48kHz, but since the newer models all playback video (which is universally encoded with 48kHz audio), I am assuming that 16-bit 48 kHz audio tracks playback without modification, but there is no way to really know.

As I stated in my earlier post, I use an iPod Classic (gen 5.5 with the Wolfson DAC) and some of my 24-bit tracks were stuttering - likely during bit truncation - possibly due to the size of the tracks themselves. Since then, I have re-sampled my high resolution tracks to 16/44.1 or 16/48 using Audiofile Engineering's Sample Manager (uses iZotope-64 for re-sampling). So, for my high-res collection, I have both the original, high bit/sample rate and a resampled version for syncing to my iPod and Android devices, as well as for use with Airplay (which is, for sure, limited to 16/44.1). No more stuttering tracks and I can fit a lot more music on my devices - BTW, Android handsets have the same limitations.

Really, forget about 24-bit audio on your portable devices; just be careful what you use to re-sample your tracks for use on your iDevices so as to preserve the sound quality. You really won't hear the difference, but that's another discussion.

Elias M wrote:

Definite answer:

iPod will output 24/48 only if using ALAC and only if your bypassing the iPods DAC.

Did you get this info from Apple or a vendor that can confirm the 24-bit part, even if bypassing the DAC?

Because everything I've read and have been told by a vendor is that even in this case, iPod H/W cannot produce LPCM from 24-bit files without first truncating to 16 bits, regardless of whether it directly outputs the LPCM (bypassing the DAC) or feeding LPCM to its own internal DAC.

Please note: I am exclusing iPad from this discussion - only iPod classic, with respect to my last statement.

Thanks, in advance.

Thanks for your reply. (I totally forgot about this thread and I just visited my old Yahoo account which is attached to my iTunes and saw the replies.)

My iPod does not stutter with these files, but pretty sure it's because of the iPod truncating the files to 16-bit, like you say. Bummer.

Might as well get an Astell & Kern when they lower their prices.

You can play 24 bit 192khz on ipad and iphone with camera connection adapter and Onkyo hf player or Canopener or some other apps that support 24/96 or 192 audio. You can get really good audio by doing this. I dont know if this will work on ipod,but it works on both iphone and ipad for sure.

As far as I can determine iPod and iPad do not support 24 bit files. You'll have to resample to 16 bit.

I have music on my Macbook pro in AIFF, how can i create ALAC files to put on iPod?

Thanks for any help

Larry

Thanks but I don't ask for experiences or opinions as I mentioned

I did not know that. "Get Apple Support" dragged me here.

I don't.

Thanks.

iPhone/iPad can play Hi-Res because it can software decode the media. However, iPod should be using hardware decoder. So it is not possible.