Funny that you mention this, the interwebs state that a FLAC file usually compresses into a slightly smaller file than ALAC, but I'm playing around this morning and am starting to discover that ALAC actually produces slightly (and I mean SLIGHTLY) smaller file size than FLAC. Not dissing FLAC as it's a great format, but audiophiles who know WAY more about this stuff than I have really examined this and and have found both formats are sonically equal and truly lossless. Both formats are also able to handle 24 bit files and beyond.

Whilst iTunes is able to play 24 bit ALAC files, I own this cool piece of kit by a company called Wadia that is an iPod dock that extracts the true digital stream from an iPod and passes it off to a receiver/DA convertor via a digital connection. I own the first model that only utilizes a coax digital cable, would love the latest model that has a ton more features and utilizes fiber-optic as well, but once again I'm broke LOL!

Anyway, I contacted Wadia to ask if it could handle 24 bit ALAC and they told me every time they tried the iPod crashed! Don't know if this is a shortcoming of the iPod OS or the Wadia, but Steve Jobs has stated that he wants iTunes to move toward selling 24 bit DRM free files so here's hoping!

Dan

On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Thomas Touzimsky <tto@klf.de> wrote:

Unlike a converted mp3, a lossless file is only reduced in size but with all the audio information intact. A lossless FLAC/ALAC file can be reconverted to WAV without degrading sound quality.

I once converted an ALAC file back to WAV to see if it was truly lossless - the original and the reconverted WAV phased out each other perfectly, so there you go. :)

..::// Thomas Touzimsky

"While there are limits to success, your capacity for failure is infinite." - Aaron Williams

Am 03.09.2011 um 22:13 schrieb Martijn van Rheenen:

> I may be a bit naive here, but isn't the term 'lossless' used to indicate that no bytes or bits are lost at all? Then no matter what lossless format you use, they should all be identical.

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