Audio Formats

Here’s how I play music:

On my windows desktop I use iTunes with the iTunes equalizer bypassed. I run optical out of my motherboard (no soundcard) straight into my Schiit Bifrost. I use Equalizer APO to eq windows a bit. I bypass the eq when using headphones.

On my Macbook pro its iTunes as well. I optical out into an Ibasso D10, or I firewire out into my Motu Traveller. I never use the headphone jack.

In my living room I have an apple tv. I use airplay (apple codec with 16 bit 44.1 kHz CD quality lossless audio) over wired Ethernet (soundguys hate wireless). Audio goes to the apple tv HDMI out, then to my receiver, then to a 31 band graphic eq, then a pro audio amp, then some large PA speakers.

In my parents living room its apple tv as well, but theirs goes to a minidsp device for eq and xover, then to the speakers.

iTunes was my choice because it plays the best with others. I can get the music to multiple devices. I can use my phone as a remote control in any zone I happen to be in.

I also use iTunes match. For $25 a year they scan your library then give you access to that library in the cloud from any device you’re signed in on. So my desktop is my hub, with 150gb of music, and my laptop is bare. Match just streams from the cloud, or I download a few albums to it before I disconnect.

I have a hierarchy for where I get my source files from:
#1 Bandcamp.com : lossless files + pay what you want + band gets more profits than anywhere else = win
#2 Vetted vinyl ripps : Why do I say vetted? Not all vinyl is better than digital. More below.
#3 Physical CDs ripped as apple lossless : I’m ok buying into the apple ecosystem, wav and aiff waste space
#4 Itunes store : 256kbps AAC files are fine, not very futureproof, but ok
#4 320kbps mp3s straight from band websites : Two #4s, not a typo, the formats are equal
#5 B&W Society of Sound : I sign up for the free trial every year or so and download everything I can

So the first thing you’re wondering is wav/aiff vs FLAC/ALAC. Really it depends on which ecosystem you’re in and how you consume music. If you’re not committed yet it’s good to stay neutral. Hard drive space is cheap. All these formats are bit for bit the same acoustically.

Next is lossless vs 256kbps AAC vs 320kbps mp3. Guess what? With that mountain of sound gear I just described I cannot differentiate between lossless and 320 kBps mp3. With $100k of speakers flown in the air for a concert I cannot tell the difference between these formats. Now if I was in an acoustically treated studio… that’s a different story. I need to invest $1000-2000 in acoustic treatment for my room before I can tell you which is better. In the meantime just default to lossless. Hard drive space is cheap. When the physical cd costs $20 though, I just buy the $10 iTunes version. Lossless is only worth a few dollars more to me overall.

How you rip a CD matters. iTunes has error correction that you can turn on, I always leave it on. One step better would be using dedicated software for ripping such as Exact Audio Copy. Basically consumer CD drives are lazy and skip bits every now and then. This is especially prominent on scratched/damaged CDs.

24 bit, 96 khz, 192khz. These are recording formats. They only matter when you’re combining 20 or 30 tracks of audio and mixing them down. They are not a delivery format. CD quality 16 bit 44.1 kHz is totally pristine. When I get high bit rate files like these I downsample and dither to CD quality.

There is an audio format issue that is more important than any of these. In fact it is the absolute most important audio quality feature. It’s simply the recording quality. I have heard tons of 256kbps AACs from iTunes that sound better than certain artist’s 24bit 96khz files on audiophile download sites. Dynamic range is crucial crucial crucial. Here is where vinyl comes in. Some artists create different versions of an album, one mixed for CD, one mixed for vinyl. Since the CD is targeted at consumers it’s usually louder. The Vinyl then, gets mixed with more emphasis on audio quality. These vinyl recordings are the ones I search out, but even then, you’re not just hearing the vinyl, you’re hearing the record player, needle, preamp, AD converter, and whatever processing a ripper chooses to use. This could give higher quality than the CD or lower quality than the CD. You have to listen.

A positive example is Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium. The CD version of this is very dynamically compressed. I find it unlistenable, and I had bought the physical CD. I ended up deleting it since the sound was so fatiguing. My ears were literally sore from listening at any volume. I found a vinyl rip of this album though and it was like I was finally actually hearing it, the sound mix was totally different, the snare drum sounded like a snare drum, the vocals were effortlessly floating over the band. I put the whole double album on and listened to the whole two hours straight the first time I acquired it.

A negative example is Beach House – Bloom, the vinyl is exactly the same mix as the CD mix. So all I hear when I listen to the vinyl rip is errors in the vinyl recording set up. You can’t gain quality by recording the vinyl record, you can only capture a version that was never printed to CD.

I very rarely keep the vinyl version and the cd version in my collection at the same time. I usually listen to both, pick one, and delete the other.