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Is Apple about to offer higher quality music downloads through iTunes?
For quite some time, a portion of Apple's customers have wanted higher quality audio files from the iTunes Store. Apple uses AAC coding for the iTunes Store, which is lossy, but a shade better than standard MP3 files. Competitors are now pushing higher quality through download stores like HDtracks. Musicians are also getting into the act, wanting people to hear their music the way it was recorded, and Neil Young has stepped into the fray with his own Pono hardware and music download store. All these initiatives are banking on consumers wanting higher quality than what Apple provides. A sharp-eyed reader noticed a newly released album -- Knives to the Future -- from Project 86 as being a "24-Bit Master". That may be a first for the iTunes Store, or perhaps I just haven't noticed those listings before. 24-Bit mastering would certainly indicate a higher quality download that what's normally available. It may also just be Apple keeping pace with its own request to get music from producers for iTunes encoding with the best possible quality to begin with. In Apple's own notes to producers it says: "To take best advantage of our latest encoders send us the highest resolution master file possible, appropriate to the medium and the project." "An ideal master will have 24-bit 96kHz resolution. These files contain more detail from which our encoders can create more accurate encodes. However, any resolution above 16-bit 44.1kHz, including sample rates of 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, and 192kHz, will benefit from our encoding process." Most studio tracks today are recorded in 24-bit. Chances are Apple isn't sending out higher resolution files yet, but rather taking them in that way. Apple has already said in several venues that it thinks iTunes downloads are the highest quality reasonably obtainable now. While not quite up to CD quality, Apple thinks the differences are imperceptible. Audiophiles differ. I expect the reference on the album mentioned is that the producers supplied a 24-bit master which Apple re-encoded to AAC. Of course Apple invented ALAC, or Apple Lossless Encoding, but Apple hasn't offered any ALAC downloads in the iTunes store, at least not yet. Audiophiles would surely like something better. I have a question in to Apple about its plans, but haven't heard anything back as of publication time. I'll certainly let you know if I hear anything. Apple has been so influential in music sales and hardware over the past decade that it would be nice to see the company step up with an option for higher quality downloads. Let us know in comments if you'd like to have Apple offer higher resolution audio files, or if you think things sound fine as they are.
iRiver's AK100 now supports Apple-based audio codecs
If you're an audiophile with $700 burning a hole in your pocket, you might've been tempted by iRiver's Astell & Kern AK100. Already boasting Mastering Quality Sound (MQS) lossless audio playback -- along with support for MP3, Ogg, FLAC, WAV, WMA and APE codecs -- there's now another reason to be seduced by the luxury pmp. Released today, firmware update version 1.3 for the device finally adds Apple-based codecs (AAC, ALAC and AIFF) to the list -- who said iTunes and audiophiles can't get along? To jog your memory, the AK100 has a Wolfson WM8740 Digital-to-Analog Converter, 32GB of built-in storage, two microSD card slots and a 2,000 mAh battery that'll last 16 hours. Get a peek at the press release after the break or just head to the source to download the update.
Apple's lossless ALAC goes open source, it's like FLAC for iPods
Well, it's not nearly as exciting as a new iPhone, but Apple recently announced a bit of news that will set people in certain circles abuzz. The company's lossless audio codec, ALAC, is going open source. Similar to FLAC, the Apple Lossless Audio Codec offers some file compression while still delivering a bit-for-bit recreation of the original source material. The primary difference being that Apple devices and software do not support FLAC (at least without some tinkering) but can handle the Cupertino developed ALAC. The decision to release the code under the Apache license won't have much of an immediate impact on your digital audio routine, but expect support for ALAC to start popping up in more media players (both hardware and software) soon.
Apple's ALAC codec is now open source
Apple Lossless, also known as ALAC, is a lossless audio codec Apple developed some time ago for digital music. The codec compresses music files anywhere from 40-60 percent of their original size with no discernible loss in audio quality or fidelity. "A decoded ALAC stream is bit-for-bit identical to the original uncompressed audio file," according to its description. iTunes on the Mac and virtually all of Apple's portable devices support the codec, and it's been my personal format of choice when ripping songs from a CD source. The big news today is that ALAC is now open source. "Apple Lossless Audio Codec sources are available under the Apache license," according to Mac OS Forge, and the project "contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder." The project also includes alacconvert, a command line utility that can read and write audio data to and from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. "A description of a 'magic cookie' for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well," Mac OS forge says. Open sourcing ALAC may or may not lead to more widespread adoption of the codec, but for purely selfish reasons I hope it does. While FLAC fulfills many of the same functions as Apple's in-house lossless codec, it has no support on iOS devices, and re-encoding FLAC files into something that iTunes won't choke on has always been a pet peeve of mine. If more people begin adopting ALAC instead of FLAC, it'll make life a lot easier for audiophiles. [via Vincent Gable/twitter]
