[Audio Empire]

On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:30:25 -0700, Robert Peirce wrote
(in article ):

In article ,
Audio Empire wrote:

On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:12:58 -0700, Robert Peirce wrote
(in article ):

I use iTunes as a music server. Everything in it right now is AIF from
CDs and LPs. I thought to download some tunes from Apple but they are
all AAC. (AAC is described as being better than MP3, which I guess is
like having crap without the smell.) For some reason they don't support
AIF.

Is there a source of lossless downloads of individual tunes out there
somewhere? I did a google search but could not find anything. Some
sites weren't working and the ones I found that were didn't have the
kind of music I listen to. Mostly I listen to jazz but also some older
rock and classical.

My experience (and I'm afraid it's limited) is that Apple Store iTunes
downloads sound wretched - at least every one that I've downloaded has. My
last try was a 4-CD (if you bought it) set called "Miklos Rozsa, a
Centennial
Celebration" from Varese Sarabande. It was unlistenable. Subsequently, I
borrowed a "hard copy" CD set from a friend who purchased it and ripped it
myself. My "rip" was 1000 times better than the iTunes Store download.
Since
I already paid iTunes for the download, I don't feel that copying my
friend's
CDs is piracy. Had I not already paid for it once, I wouldn't have done
that.

Since then I've been very reluctant to buy anything else from iTunes as
that
wasn't the first download with which I've been dissatisfied.

Well, that's my point. See my comment about AAC. That's why I am
looking for a commercial source of lossless downloads. I don't mind
paying for them. I would just like to find some.



Someone recommended "torrents'' as being better quality than iTunes. While
this might be true, unless the torrents are coming from a real commercial
music site, my experience is that most of them are illegal copies.

I found that the problem with iTunes is not necessarily the fact that the
downloads are AAC, but rather that the quality of the transfers is just
overall poor. They sound harsh, distorted, somewhat compressed (in the analog
sense, not in the file sense) and just bad!