Posts: 27
Joined: Dec 2016
Reputation:
0
dj001
Junior Member
Posts: 27
I bought an Android-based streaming music player running KODI and arranged to rip my 900 CDs to digital files. The service doing this says Apple Lossless will work with my set-up and is better than FLAC. Should I go with Apple Lossless?
Posts: 4,545
Joined: Jun 2015
Reputation:
269
2017-03-01, 13:38
(This post was last modified: 2017-03-01, 17:22 by DaveBlake.)
Personally I would stay with FLAC, because there is no sound advantages with ALAC (ALAC and FLAC sound exactly the same) and I prefer open source formats to propriatory ones.
I did read that iTunes does not play or support FLAC files natively, if that is correct and you are a big Apple OS user then I guess ALAC my offer something you want.
Posts: 24
Joined: Jul 2013
Reputation:
1
As far as I know from own experience and reading online there are no real differences between flac and apple lossless in terms of sound. After all, both are lossless formats. File sizes are also comparable. I've been using flac exclusively for a long time despite being a apple user, but now after I got an iPhone with 132Gb memory I started to rip in apple lossless since I can play that on my phone. I got pretty hood IEM (Shute 846) and can't hear a difference between the formats even when playing with an external DAC to the phone. Just use what's convenient for you.
Sent from my iPhone
Posts: 350
Joined: Jun 2014
Reputation:
9
2017-03-01, 16:35
(This post was last modified: 2017-03-01, 16:35 by jasn.)
I too am using ALAC files because I still have a classic iPod for my car and my family use iPhones (I'm an android user). I run KODI on an ASUS chromebox and have no trouble with ALAC, although I don;t think my old ears could hear the differnce between ALAC and FLAC.
iTunes, BTW, formats tracks just fine for use with KODI, but some of the metadata does not get embedded, like song ratings. That could be a biggie if you plan to rate songs and set up smart playlists.
Posts: 1,746
Joined: Nov 2014
Reputation:
160
docwra
Posting Freak
Posts: 1,746
2017-03-01, 18:05
(This post was last modified: 2017-03-01, 18:06 by docwra.)
FLAC is "better", I.E. its compatible with far more players and operating systems.
Even windows 10 now supports reading FLAC tags natively.
Itunes being the exception of course
Posts: 279
Joined: Apr 2014
Reputation:
9
FLAC is open, ALAC is proprietary. If you want to store audio for long term use and compatibility with a wider variety of players. Go for FLAC.
