Apple Lossless vs AAC Encoder?

Hello,

I am trying to get a little deeper into the differences between Apple Lossless and the AAC Encoder for importing my music. I use iTunes and a Windows 10 PC.

I import a lot of music and I used to import using mp3 encoder then I came across some info in the past that the AAC encoder was the way to go for better quality sound. I also learned that the m4a file created from the AAC encoder is compatible with much of the same software and apps that an mp3 file extension is.

I recently across some info that Apple Lossless is similar to FLAC and of the highest sound quality that is compatible with iTunes, where as FLAC is not. I use the Apple Music app to listen to music digitally so what is compatible with Apple Music first and foremost is key for me. I do also import my music locally to a WD drive which I can access on the go (as well as via Plex) so there are alternative ways for me to access my music.

With using Apple Music service and matching my imported music though, it's so much more convenient to just use the Apple Music app. However I've found in trying out this Apple Lossless that the file in turn is not compatible with a lot of other software, programs and apps.

With all that being said, although I listen to and consume a lot of music, I'm not a huge audiophile when it comes to sound quality. Although I've never really went out of my way to experiment with different files and quality difference. Ideally I would want to have the best sound quality files but to my ears no one has really made me hear the real nuances and differences between all the different file types.

So I feel like I'd want to find the best sound quality so I guess my question in all of this goes back to Apple Lossless vs AAC Encoder. Which should I use? Is there really that much difference in sound quality between Apple Lossless and AAC Encoder? While I'm using Apple Music almost exclusively as the medium for digital music... it would be nice to have a file that I can access across the board should I choose to use something else maybe in the future.

Thanks for any feedback in advance. Greatly appreciated!

 

Quick summary on the formats first : lossless is no data loss when encoding (FLAC and ALAC are examples of that). Uncompressed also no data loss but larger file sizes (WAV / AIFF) and then lossy are the smallest file sizes but there is data loss associated with those formats (WMA / MP3 / AAC).

Unfortunately there's no one clear answer but will mention what works for me. I leverage FLAC for archiving only (CD rips / vinyl rips). The idea is that these are my "master files" essentially, and perhaps in the future I'll use those for on-the-go playback as well. But not necessarily today.

For on-the-go I actually leverage (lossy) WMA Professional format as it's supported by all my various devices and the storage bang-buck is quite good. If I was Apple ecosystem primarily I'd probably use AAC (and actually was for a time) as it was designed as the replacement for MP3 and usually sounds better, at the same bitrate as MP3 so again good storage bang-buck.

If compatibility was my main driver however, MP3 is still king.

 

Would be useful to find out which apps you're taking about, specifically. The advantage of a lossless codec like ALAC is that you always have the option of transcoding into any other (lossless) format with zero quality loss. Thus, it gives you a maximum amount of flexibility. The quality you lose once going to AAC (whether that loss is audible or not) can never be restored on the other hand. Should you ever wish to convert your files to e.g. MP3, the quality will only further degrade if your original files are already in a lossy format.

 

Thanks for the feedback @Gaslight & @doppelganger. Much appreciated and helps me understand things much better. Sometimes when looking for information like this you get overwhelmed by information and it's good to get some succinct thoughts that are easier to wrap your head around.

Well, I was uploading some files to Amazon Music - and while that has already been announced as going away - it would not upload/support the handful of Apple Lossless files I ripped. I thought that my WD Cloud app did not support it either but there must have been something else going on because I tried again and it does. Your explanation of moving up and down between formats, @doppelganger helps and thanks for that.

The storage bang-buck is important to me to as you brought up @Gaslight. I'm far away from a point where it's going to be a noticeable issue but it's always a thought I have as I rip/import.

 

I wanted to further my original discussion on this topic here by sharing some more thoughts

These are the steps I take to build and maintain my digital collection...


1. For music I receive in digital format, I will first burn it to CD

2. For music I receive in CD format, I will start right with ripping into iTunes

3. Then I'll rip the CD into iTunes. Long ago I'd rip as mp3, then I switched to AAC a little while ago, as of a few months ago I started ripping Apple Lossless to give it a try.

4. When ripping I add to the fields

-Artist

-Album

-Album Artist (only started using this field more recently)

-Grouping (I use this field to indicate original format - if there is one - like vinyl, CD, cassette)

-Genre

-Comments (I use this field essentially for tags)

-Track

-Disc Number

5. Then once the files are ripped I'll locate the files on the computer and add same tags I added in the comment field under the tag section of the files as well as make sure the album art is associated with each song/file

I upload to a WD drive which I can access on the go. I also have that drive linked to my Plex server so I can access it through Plex should I choose to but ultimately I use the Apple Music app to listen to my digital music as it's most convienient to use in tandem with the Apple Music service (also since Apple Music matches a whole lot of what I rip). Plus it pretty simple design IMO that allows me to quickly get to what I want. A few things I wish it had though would be the ability to rate/star an entire album like you can on the iTunes desktop (I haven't found a third party app that will do this) and also allow you to search or sort or somehow utilize the comments you input for each song. I've found a few third party apps that allow you to view what the comments are but no real way to utilize it in a search or anything.

I've found iTunes does everything I want to do with managing digital music well enough. Actually it's more like - I haven't found something else that does what I want to do. I've tried out stuff like Music Bee and JRiver and they seemed a lot harder to work with. Music Bee was a little better but I've tried JRiver a few times and I don't know why - but it seemed like a big mess and poor design. Of course the lack of support for FLAC seems like it's what would be holding me back for a perfect scenario. The only reason for me to work with FLAC I think would be for when I receive music digitally - receive them in FLAC - and then the CD that I burn it to will in turn be a FLAC master.

I guess all this in turn then would lead back to my original topic Apple Lossless vs AAC since the question would still be what should I rip into iTunes as?

Unless someone can suggest some alternatives to my process which I am open to suggestions on different software and media managers and all that.

There was a thread I saw somewhere about file management OCD. That could probably describe me as clean, neat properly titled and tagged files are important to me. As well as artwork and storage bang-for-buck. I use to want to have the smallest file size possible but I've learned that obviously that sacrifices quality so I don't mind a larger file size that much anymore, so long as the file is going to be that viable across the board file that I'm ultimately looking for.

Thanks again for any continued feedback and engaging in my discussion on this topic.

 

I backed up everything all my CDs as apple lossless and then used iTunes to convert them to mp3 when uploading onto iPhone

I have recently stopped using apple lossless as its still not used on many different mediums - I ended up transferring all apple lossles to flac with no dfference at all with media monkey which will allow me go transfer flac to mp3

If you plan only only using apple products you will find apple lossles fine however if your using a number of non apple products over time seriously consider using flac for back up and encoding it to whatever you confirm from that point on

 

I rip to Apple lossless and copy to external hard drives. Then I convert to 320kps. I have itunes on two laptops, the second is selected lossless music which I listen via USB through my Oppo 105D.

 

you can look at Cloud Data Archiving | Long-term Object Storage | Amazon Glacier

and compare how much it is to buy external XTB storage device vs putting on something like glacier. as long as its archval and you are not pulling/downloading data from glacier often, online archival is better. external drives tend to fail.

 

Thankfully my latest iPhone is a 64gb. I always had all my music of my Classic 80gb iPod (still works), but used to only have 16gb iPhones.

It was tuff times....

P.S. I have a hard time hearing the difference between ALAC & AAC (for the record).