[G4] Integratng with home stereo

[zhmmy harper]

As I said previously, I would put it up against the latest new stuff for 
quality of sound.

I use iTunes 4.5 for importing tracks from CDs.  You can drag all the tracks 
in at once and conversion is very quick.  Set Prefs to import as MP3s (AIFF 
files are about 8 times as large.)  Be sure sampling rate is set to 44.100, 
use 192 (better quality) and uncheck play while importing.  If you want to 
convert to Quicktime Player you can drag the iTunes MP3 file to a QT Player 
alias--be sure to save as standalone movie.

I use Toast 6.5 Titanium for all my recording and the included Spin Doctor 
for digitizing and cleaning up cassette and LP tracks.  Peak 3.2 is even 
better if you want to tweak or create audio tracks.  If you want to burn MP3 
CDs or DVDs use the Audio setting in Toast and make sure you have selected 
MP3 disc.  If you want a CD that will play on stereo units then select Audio 
Disc.  You can make an audio CD using just about any form of audio files.

As to your question about "compressed", that means MP3.  AIFF is the 
uncompressed digital tracks on a music CD.  Yes, MP3 does lose some of the 
quality just as JPEG loses some photo quality.  However, unless your eyes 
and ears are as sensitive as scientific instruments I rather doubt you will 
ever be able to hear the difference.  ITunes accepts several formats but I 
always allow it to convert to MP3.  MP3 is what is fed from the computer but 
reaches the stereo (through the line output) as analog.  Fortunately 
computers don't have built-in amplifiers or you would have to step down the 
signal to use it on your stereo amp.

Yes, the sound quality is excellent going from the speaker port of your mac 
to your amplifier.  However, I went ahead and bought an M-Audio Revolution 
7.1 sound card because of its many features, including ability to use 
earphones, mike, 2/1 through 7/1 and Dolby Surroundsound.

I hope this helps.

xxxxx
Roger, Nathan,and Zhmmy.

What sound quality are you experiencing going from the speaker port of you 
mac into your amplifier? What format are you using for your music files?

I want to get rid of my CD rack, and burn everything to a dedicated music 
server running itunes and hook  it to my amp. I want the sound quality to be 
as good as my current stereo system cd player. The questions I have are:

Do I need to burn the CDs as uncompressed to get decent sound quality? What 
about Apples new lossless compression format?

Do I need a PCI sound card to get the best fidelity, or will the speaker  
port work? I only want two channels, not surround.

Thanks,
David

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