More drawbacks to using Apple Lossless format Apr11 '07

Screenshot of iTunes import preferences

A while ago I decided to only rip CD's into iTunes as lossless, rather than compressing the music into smaller files (and subsequently decreasing the sound quality).

At that point, the only issues with this (that I knew of) was that each song file would take up more space on my hard drive, which wasn't a big deal.

However, I wasn't aware of the "iTunes cache" problem. Apparently iTunes uses a cache to play songs from your library, thereby limiting constant hard drive activity. The smaller the song files - the more can be fit in the cache. The larger the song files - the less can be fit in the cache. Obviously you want to fit more songs into the cache, so the hard drive doesn't have to work as hard.

This is not so much an issue on a computer, but think about an iPod. It's portable, and uses a battery, which can drain rather quickly if the hard drive is constantly working.

I've noticed that iPods don't even allow you to copy lossless files over. This is probably just a safeguard that was put in place, but what about my music that I want to listen to?

I could go ahead and convert each lossless file to a compressed file, but that means I'd have to import twice, which is a lot of extra work.

It seems lossless is certainly the "smart" way to go, but until technology catches up with it, it's useless.

Categories: Apple , Digital Audio , iTunes , Music

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Hmmm, I wasn't aware of the 'cache' issue either. I have put about 400 CD's into iTunes in the Apple Lossless format - and I play them back ... Read more.

Thanks Jim. That's interesting to note. I received the "cache tip" in a random forum, so I'm not sure if it's validated or not. If you're n ... Read more.

Current iPods (other than the Shuffle) support Apple Lossless. ... Read more.

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