maitani wrote:Why mess with FLAC when there is Apple Lossless which is not only fully supprted by iTunes (Windows & Mac) but is in no way inferior to FLAC in terms of sound quality?
I've come across some who profess that FLAC played on Foobar outperforms Apple Lossless played on iTunes.
For me, it's a non-issue...wala akong iPod eh. I went with a Creative muVo since it's AAA powered, sports a display vs. the comparable Shuffle, and has a much better stock ear buds (which I replaced rather quickly anyways! Ha!)
Going back to Apple Lossless vs. FLAC, it can boil down to exactly the same arguments as proprietary vs. open source. Look at products like Slim Devices' Squeezebox for example. The fact that it's open source led to lots of software and functionalities being developed for it vs. say Apple's Airport Express, such as the ability to call playlists from a Wi-Fi enabled PDA.
I'm not really that sure how that's done on Apple.
dogears wrote:question: 'lossless'... no loss from what?
TIA
dogears, no loss from WAV, the format stored in your CDs. Lossless CODECs simply compresses the original file, much like how WinZip works with your Microsoft Office files. Lossy CODECs such as the ubiquitious MP3 format is akin to RAW files being re-encoded into JPEG.
Gino, thanks for pointing out FLAC last December. Your post got me started on this "trek."
s0n1c, I share your sentiments on the Shures' tendency to congest. I have the E4Cs and I run them off my Thinkpad and Creative muVo. My thoery is the puny headphone amps on the laptop and portable player are at fault. I guess this is why some Audio Asylum jumkies recommend the ballsier than usual Rio Karma.
Over the next several days/weeks I'll try using the E4Cs with my X-Cans v2 and share my experience. For now, my PX-100 displaced the E4C for listening straight out of a laptop or portable player in the office. I just arrived from an 8 hour plane ride...the noise isolation of the Shure makes it my choice when on the road.
Perhaps a Total Bithead or Meier's stuff is in order for the E4Cs to have a more permanent place in my kit.
Anyone here with inputs on how the Headroom stuff compare vs. Jan Meier's? Stuff like the Grace 902 is still a bit too rich for me at this time.