To change iTunes default import settings in favor of a lossless audio encoder, open the iTunes main menu and hit “Preferences…”. Getting the bits off your discs with a “lossless compression” encoder means you are getting exactly the same audio quality as on the original disc albeit at half the file size it would normally take to archive those tracks in WAV or AIFF. But as I have explained in an earlier article, I’m not a huge fan of compression. If you choose to import the CD into your library, iTunes does so at 256 kB/s AAC lossy compression. On Windows, I always recommend FreeRIP and Exact Audio Copy.īy default, iTunes will prompt you for the next steps you wish to have carried out once you insert a Compact Disc.

It supports a whopping 20+ formats and lets you customise the entire ripping process to your needs. Max is Open Source software so it won’t break the bank. If you want more flexibility – either to have a wider range of audio formats available (including FLAC, OGG or other rather more exotic derivates) – you might want to investigate Max, that is if you’re on a Mac of course. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to get it up and running with the correct settings for best quality. Mac users can even replace the core playback engine of iTunes with something “better sounding”.ĭespite being not so well integrated into Windows, I found iTunes more intuitive than other software – maybe because I’m just used to it, who knows. In addition, nothing beats having a single app to sync my iPhone, calendar, movie and music library. Thus far we have never experienced any serious issues save for the occasional hickup. I can get iTunes to talk to our family’s iDevices. I enjoy the fact that it comes pre-installed and I don’t have to download something else (Yep, I’m lazy). After all, the whole point is to extract bit-perfect copies to our hard drives, right?įor me there’s a lot to like about iTunes – at least on a Mac.

Although audiophiles often prefer to use a number of different programs for copying CDs to their music server library, I like to keep it simple and just use iTunes for that purpose.

Apple itunes download codec