Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic OT - lossless music on iTunes?

interesting flurry of articles last week about the potential support for lossless audio in the iTunes store.

e.g.: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/apple-lossless-on-the-way-to-itunes-182973.php

if this happens, i think it will be a very interesting testbed to ascertain what the market REALLY thinks about lossy audio. my guess is that 95% or more will be happy with the existing lossy AAC stuff, but it'll be nice for the rest of us!

the MusicGiants software is so badly done, and their library is tiny and largely static. so much promise and so little execution.

anybody have any more data?

doody.

My guess is it will come done to filesize. Do you have a comparison between Lossless and lossy filesizes?

Cheers

lossless audio tends to run on the order of one half the size of redbook. iTunes lossy stuff seems to run about 1/10th the size of redbook.

that said, i don't think file size is a factor. our internet connections get faster every six months (or less) and our hard drives get larger even faster.

doody.

Interesting, I was thinking more along the lines that iPod's would have to support it for it to really take off. Since space is a premium etc.

I wonder if its possible with a firmware update. Interesting times ahead

Its not just iPod hard drive space, its also the RAM buffer otherwise music can start skkkiippppiinnnggggg- but I think most pop music would fit. That said, I bet most people wouldnt hear a difference for most pop music...

best regards,
Jerry

I presently run lossless on my iTunes library, all of several iPods without a problem. 98% of my 6000 song library is lossless, with 2% iTunes purchased AAC.... I can hear the difference on nearly all music types (not rap)...