The optimal setting for importing CDs

audioimportitunesmusic

When you use iTunes to import a CD you have several options — "AAC Encoder," "AIFF Encoder," etc.

I'd like to have the best possible sound quality and avoid any sort of lossy compression.

Which setting, if any, allows me to do that?

I noticed the "Apple Lossless" option, but it sounds a little proprietary. I'm suspicious. So I guess my goal is the above, but using a cross-platform standard file format if possible.

Best Answer

I would recommend using the AAC MPEG4 set at 320KBS. We have done blind tests between this & uncompressed in a hi-fi shop, and no one has been able to tell the difference. AAC is a great codec & 10 years newer than MP3. The other option (if you have the room) is to leave them uncompressed.

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If you have enough disk space, maybe you can import the CDs into a new iTunes library, and when it is all done, import again (in one go) from there into the real one?

iTunes Plus AAC – afconvert Settings Explained

I had the exact same obsession, and ended up creating a FLAC-to-iTunes importer that decodes FLAC files to WAV and imports them into iTunes using iTunes' own encoder: https://github.com/cbguder/FLAC2iTunes

It should be easy enough to modify FLAC2iTunes to support direct WAV input.

As for the soundcheck values, I compared iTunes, XLD and afconvert by encoding WAV files to AAC and decoding them back to WAV and comparing the decoded audio data. I also compared afinfo outputs for the encoded files. While the souncheck values are different for each file, the decoded WAVs are exactly the same, so even if you use XLD or afconvert, the chances are the resulting files will sound exactly the same.

For afconvert, I used the parameters suggested by Apple in the "Mastered for iTunes" guide, with an intermediate CAF file:

afconvert source.wav intermediate.caf -d 0 -f caff --soundcheck-generate
afconvert intermediate.caf -d aac -f m4af -u pgcm 2 --soundcheck-read -b 256000 -q 127 -s 2 final.m4a

For XLD, I used these settings:

Format: MPEG-4 AAC
Mode: VBR (Constrained)
Encoder Quality: Max
Sample Rate: Auto
Target bitrate: 256 kbps
Add gapless information for iTunes: checked
Write accurate bitrate information: checked

Best Answer

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When re-importing music in iTunes, is there a way to set “Replace Existing” as the default and skip the dialog

iTunes Plus AAC – afconvert Settings Explained

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