Why don't all digital players support AIFF files?

The byte-order: Do you write the number 3 in binary form like 11000000 or like 00000011.

A computer using an Intel processor needs to reverse the bits of an AIFF file in order to understand it.
This doesn't matter in 2013, but was a big thing 20+ years ago when AIFF/Wav were born.

 

AIFF in the old days was designed around Motorola microprocessors (they were used in the old Apple Macintoshes pre OSX and the Commodore Amigas). Apple likely continued AIFF being their uncompressed file format out of tradition.

 

All hits and no misses here.

 

Well, I tried this and the file did not play on a Cambridge Stream Magic 6.
I was hoping this would work.

 

hmm, not sure why it doesn't work - I have done this successfully numerous times. Is it possible that the aiff file uses a sample rate or bit depth that your dac does not support?

 

hmm, not sure why it doesn't work - I have done this successfully numerous times. Is it possible that the aiff file uses a sample rate or bit depth that your dac does not support?

 

I'm revisiting this thread because I've noticed that the new Cambridge Audio players have blurbs that say they play virtually all formats including FLAC and WAV. They don't mention AIFF. After my experience, I assume they don't support AIFF files. The new SONY players do include AIFF (as do others, so be sure to investigate before buying).

I think it matters because when I transfer files from a CD to a thumbdrive using my Mac, it automatically moves it as an AIFF file. so I assume that's the default format for full res music on Macs. I can use the free MAX app to convert files to WAV if I needed to, but why bother? My Bryston player plays all the formats I feed it, and my old economical Squeezebox TOUCH played AIFFs and WAV files, so cost doesn't seem to be a factor here.

If you're in the market for a digital player, I guess it's just a matter of buyer beware.

 

You could convert them all to FLAC automatically in just an hour or two.

 

True. XLD converts almost anything (even DSD now) and does it very quickly.

 

Well, if he's using AIFF, I would think he's invested in the Apple world, so I would say ALAC rather than FLAC, though FLAC is more widely accepted. Of course XLD will , as mentioned, convert them easily. Really a strange thread by the OP as I've been a Mac guy for years and years and have never even considered using AIFF for anything other than a raw recording like a needle drop before converting it to something more useful.