AIF format issues in iTunes and Media Monkey

[sarfania]

I am a PC user with windows Vista. I currently use iTunes and as of a short while ago, Monkey's Audio to listen to music. I like iTunes for ease of use but recently discovered that Monkey's Audio sound better on my system.

 

I recently got a couple of 24bit 96 KHz cds and tried to import them to iTunes and I found out that when converting to AIF the music is converted to 16 bit and 44.1 KHz. I had no problems with ALAC and 24-96 was maintained. Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong?

 

In Monkey's I use the iTunes library to access my music. I found out that I am not able to play AIF format. I have no issues with ALAC format and they play just fine. I looked for the proper codec but I was not able to find one that works. Any guidance is appreciated.

 

Shanam

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Shanam - I'm a little bit confused, but that certainly shouldn't surprise anyone :-) You said you got a couple 24/96 CDs. Can you be more specific? CDs are limited to 16/44.1.

 

All high resolution conversions to AIFF within iTunes will be down sampled to 16/44.1. The AIFF converter doesn't support anything greater. But iTunes will play up to 24/192 without an issue.

 

[Innertuber]

Might check those CDs. Could they have been downsampled when written?

 

[sarfania]

Sorry for confusing everyone, these are not CDs; these are 24/96 vinyl rips of good quality recordings that a friend did so we can compare the end results with off the shelf CDs using our equipment. When I tried adding them to my iTunes library I noticed that it was down sampled when I used AIFF format but ALAC did not down sample. Thanks to Chris, I now understand that AIFF does not support anything greater than 16/44.1.

 

FWIW, even though I do not have the equipment to play back 24/96 resolution the tracks coverted from vinyl do sound nicer to me.

 

My other question was can Monkey's Audio play AIFF?

 

Shahnam

 

[sarfania]

Sorry for confusing everyone, these are not CDs; these are 24/96 vinyl rips of good quality recordings that a friend did so we can compare the end results with off the shelf CDs using our equipment. When I tried adding them to my iTunes library I noticed that it was down sampled when I used AIFF format but ALAC did not down sample. Thanks to Chris, I now understand that AIFF does not support anything greater than 16/44.1.

 

FWIW, even though I do not have the equipment to play back 24/96 resolution the tracks coverted from vinyl do sound nicer to me.

 

My other question was can Monkey's Audio play AIFF?

 

Shahnam

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Shahnam - One clarification. AIFF supports much higher than 16/44.1. It only the iTunes AIFF converter that doesn't support high resolution.

 

I currently play 24/192 AIFF track in iTunes. They just weren't converted within iTunes.

 

[BEEMB]

Did the rips manage to keep some of that vinyl warmth and timing ?

 

[sarfania]

They sound nicer than the redbook cd releases. Probably not a fair comparison since the vinyls were high quality recording.

 

[sarfania]

What software are you using to convert? I don't think Max works on PC. I will try to see if EAC will do that.

 

Shahnam

 

 

 

[Lizard_King]

Switch to using J. River Media Center!

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Lizard_King - I think J River should sponsor you :-) No worries though, I like your enthusiasm for the product. Any idea when version 13 is coming out?

 

[Bruce Canvasser]

Hi- on my mac pro the digital out Midi player-will only output to 24/96-is there some other setting I'm not aware off? Your said iTunes will play up to 24/192-in post4593 last year.

Thanks ,

Bruce

 

[Audio_ELF]

iTunes will play 24/192, however the digital output on the Mac is limited to 24/96. If you want higher resolution you'll need a different interface (i.e. M-Audio ProFire 610, FireFace 400, Weiss DAC2 or AFI1, etc.)

 

Eloise

 

[4evaMacnLinux]

I use xld to convert my 24/192 flac to aiff with no down sample occur, but am using a Mac that's the only app that can convert high res audio without being down sampled. There is also max which probably could do the same but I haven't try it out yet. With that said, since am not on windows the only program I could think of is dbpoweramp which could do what xld does. I'm just guessing though not if it down sampled once converted? Anyways just give it a try.... Oh one more thing, I was able to transfer 24/48 aiff to my iPod classic 160gb 2011 and play them fine. I was also able to play 24/192 aiff on iTunes it sounded amazing, I did check on the file to make sure it wasn't down sampled and it didn't. 24/48 n 24/192 aiff are showing up as is

 

[mwheelerk]

I have used XLD in the past but I currently use MAX. Are you saying that when I convert 24/96 downloaded FLAC files to, in my case, Apple Lossless they are being downsampled?

 

[4evaMacnLinux]

No they won't be down sample, they will just be the same @ 24/96 alac because I've done so with some of my 24/96 flac files. After converting your flac files import it into iTunes, right click on it and go to info you'll will see that your alac are the same as your flac files.

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