Neil Young develops HQ music player rivaling ipod

S.D. wrote:

The most important aspect is having the content available to take advantage of the hi-res players.  The online retailers like Amazon and iTunes need to get on board and give us lossless and beyond-CD quality offerings, every album should be released in multiple resolutions so the consumer has the choice of getting the version best suited for their needs.

You'll get no argument from me. Something I've never understood is why companies like Apple and Amazon have gone to MP3 when the codec is a pay-to-play for developers when open-source alternatives have been in abundance for years. You'd think that would appeal to the bottom-line folks far more.

Apple even goes a step further: instead of just building in FLAC compatibility, they create not one, but TWO codecs for lossless. I get not wanting to always stand on the shoulders of giants, but they're taking it a step farther.

Apple only has 1 lossless codec: Apple Lossless (ALAC). Every other codec they use is lossy.

Being open source has long been rumored as the primary reason that FLAC was not adopted by the major online retailers.

Isn't AIFF also a lossless codec Apple uses?

You would think open-source would be appealing due to the lack of cost for implementation...

Runicen wrote:

Isn't AIFF also a lossless codec Apple uses?

You would think open-source would be appealing due to the lack of cost for implementation...

AIFF is a raw file, just like WAV.

There is really no difference between ALAC and FLAC, same thing except for the file header. You can convert a FLAC file to ALAC in about a millisecond, it does no actual conversion.

I've been using a conversion program to take my FLAC ripped in EAC into ALAC so I can import to my iPod and iTunes. It's seriously an exercise in masochism, but I haven't trusted iTunes to rip CDs since it "lost" the tags to the "Complete" Judas Priest box set and I had to manually re-tag 16 or so discs.

Sadly, the conversion process leaves the files with no tags as well, so even that is a tremendous pain.

First world problems and all that...   

Runicen wrote:

I've been using a conversion program to take my FLAC ripped in EAC into ALAC so I can import to my iPod and iTunes.  It's seriously an exercise in masochism, but I haven't trusted iTunes to rip CDs since it "lost" the tags to the "Complete" Judas Priest box set and I had to manually re-tag 16 or so discs.  

Sadly, the conversion process leaves the files with no tags as well, so even that is a tremendous pain.

First world problems and all that...    

That doesn't sound right.  I use a Mac, I use a program called MAX to convert FLAC to ALAC, it saves all the tag information.  The conversion process takes seconds.

You can rip in iTunes, you just have to make sure all the tags are correct and be sure to uncheck the selection for "Keep iTunes Folder organized" (in Preferences).  What is happening is that your conversion program is giving instructions for how to create the file/folder structure and iTunes is also trying to do the same thing, slows the process down and creates too much margin for error.  

I've been using iTunes to rip into Apple Lossless for several years now and I've never had a single issue.

I'm on PC, which is problem #1 from what I gather...

The tagging issue I had corresponded with a major update to the PC version of iTunes that was probably corrected an update or two on from that, but it was MONTHS of screwed up rips, lost file tagging, etc. and that was WITHOUT having iTunes organize my music folder.

Even if it's been fixed though, I've had way too many ripped files exhibit digital artifacts, clipping, skipping and the like to want to fart around with iTunes. The time I would save ripping directly is lost if I have to re-rip the same disc 3 times.

For conversion, I use a free program called iTunesConvert.net or something like that (would have to check once I get home). That's what drops the FLAC tags during conversion, but it converts via iTunes itself - guessing it decodes FLAC to WAV and then to ALAC. Most of the other PC utils I found were pay-to-play and I didn't want to go there if this just ends up being a stop-gap before I drop Apple and move to a FLAC-compatible player anyway.

While not making the same waves as Pono, I have to admit that this gadget has me more than a little impressed with the potential behind the idea:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/geek-wave-make-your-smartphone-s-sound-sound-better