# iTunes, improving quality of music without messing up the playlists?



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

So as my post title says in iTunes I want to improve the quality of music without messing up the playlists? Is that even possible?
Meaning can I take my original CD and import it again using something better than VBR mp3 format? Will it copy over the original file? And what should I use AAC, AIFF or something else? I need the files to be able to play on my Sansa fuze that I use in my car as well so I don't think I can use Apple lossless.


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## Greenster (Mar 2, 2013)

Apple lossless will be the best that you can do in iTunes. Try to convert a cd using it then see if it works in your car. It works on all of mine.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The only concern I have with apple lossless is it's a big file. I still want the file compressed but better quality than mp3. Is AAC much better?


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

Well my older tunes sound better with I set the ITunes equalizer to "Acoustic"


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

You can use the iTunes and re-rip your CDs at higher bitrate MP3 or Apple lossless and iTunes will ask if you want to replace the existing file, if you select yes the old file will be replaced with the new one.
The playlists and checked items in the iTunes library will remain intact.
The choices for a "better" file in iTunes are the Apple lossless or a higher bitrate MP3 (I had no luck with wave files being correctly identified in iTunes). 
Of course you could start over with a different ripper and use FLAC if the Sanza supports that.
I have not used the standard AAC FORMAT since it is not compatible with anything else I have that will play files from a flash drive.

After trying all the popular software media players/rippers and using flash drives/hard drives I was not satisfied because I did not have gapless playback.
That feature is now supported by lots of gear but at the time gapless playback was very difficult to find.
I eventually succumbed and bought an iPod Classic and re-ripped my CDs in Apple lossless, I use it with the AVR and the vehicle through USB.
I don't know why I was anti Apple/iTunes, it has turned out to be excellent for my needs and no other player comes close to the 160GB capacity of the iPod.
Good luck and post back with what you decide to go with.


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## Savjac (Apr 17, 2008)

I think you have a couple choices here using iTines.
The HD in the Sansa is not too large so going with a compression is a must if you want to have a good size library. You can use the MP3 encoder set to custom and pick the 320K bit option and that should sound pretty good. There is the AAC option mentioned and it is ok, I think its 320K which is a bit higher than the Apple store. There is an option in iTunes that allows you to convert your library or any part of it to AAC automatically even if it is already on your HD so you do not have to re input your cd's. right Click on the track or group of tracks, scroll down in that option window and click create AAC version and it does it. Now the problem is you will have two versions now so maybe a separate library would be in order ??

Hope this helps.


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## Savjac (Apr 17, 2008)

chashint said:


> I eventually succumbed and bought an iPod Classic and re-ripped my CDs in Apple lossless, I use it with the AVR and the vehicle through USB.
> I don't know why I was anti Apple/iTunes, it has turned out to be excellent for my needs and no other player comes close to the 160GB capacity of the iPod.


I did this as well and it is awesome...kind of. I love it for home in different rooms as it is so easy to move to a player in the office, kitchen etc, the problem I have is in the car, it does not have blue tooth. I had to get the iPod touch which has half the storage for more money.


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## Almadacr (May 5, 2011)

I also have a ipod classic and it's only used in car duties ( well i start the ipod before the car even with freezing temperatures  ) but i transfer all my files to 320kbps after i make a copy in FLAC . I used every thing apple but in the last years have been a hassle to put everything to work together and way too many problems .


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The beauty of my Sansa fuze is that it uses micro sd cards so I can expand the memory to whatever I want and the fuse treats it as combined memory so all tracks show up in one playlist. 
I just need to find a happy medium for quality and size. As I play my files at home as well on my iPod Classic and an iPod touch.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I have decided to just use VBR at it's highest setting mp3 @ 320kbs
Should give me a very high quality that would be tough to hear any difference between the CD and the mp3


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Update:

I spent the last two weeks re ripping all my CDs at a much higher bitrate. I ended up using VBR set at very high and am very pleased with the improvement in quality. 
The biggest difference was the highs were much more sharp particularly in some of my older rips that I originally used a fixed 160kbs sample rate. 

I tried locking it at 320kbs but could not tell a difference between that and VBR @ 240 and I like the smaller file sizes


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

Remember when the only way to get portable music was to record your LP to tape??
And selecting songs to make a mix tape??
And it was all in real time....yeah I miss the old turn table...NOT
LOL


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Yup, I still have my Sony Walkman from the 80s and yes it still works 
I even found a few of my mix tapes I had made form back then. I always used the Sony metal SR 100 blank tapes and 20 years later it still sounds decent.
Oh memories....I also much pefer my iPod and mp3s. The quality is still far better than tape.


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

I had a big suitcase full of cassettes I had recorded, no telling how many there were.
If I recall correctly BASF chromium (or something like that) was my brand of choice.
This was 1981 and the Navy shipped them from Spain to Dallas when I was redeployed to the Pacific side of the world.
They sat in storage for about two years, when I got back to Dallas and retrieved them not a single one of the tapes sounded right.
They were all garbled and the tracks had bled into each other.
It made me sick at the time, to top it off the tapes would no longer record with any musical fidelity so not only was the music and recording time lost a lot of money (for the time) was down the drain too.

Did you manage to save your playlists when you re-ripped your music?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

chashint said:


> They sat in storage for about two years, when I got back to Dallas and retrieved them not a single one of the tapes sounded right.
> They were all garbled and the tracks had bled into each other.


sounds like they had been passed by with some sort of magnetic field or something?



> Did you manage to save your playlists when you re-ripped your music?


Yes, it worked. I did have a few CDs that came up differently when it goes out to find all the info on line so it made duplicates of them instead of writing over the originals but I spent some time cleaning that up and all is good.
On my iPod classic I put all 7864 tracks on it and it went from just under 40gb to 65gb LOL


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

Cool!


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