I totally agree with your POV @Pete_the_painter, indeed I only use WAV files just like you. But what can you do if you don’t find any alternative to mp3 or m4a? You either choose one of them or don’t listen to those albums / songs.
3 Likes
I do have a few MP3’s files but I try and replace them if possible (or if I’m bothered).
However they do not imo sound anywhere as good as a WAV of Flac file.
1 Like
I usually rip the CD 
to wav and convert to alac, agree with @mikehughescq, if you love the song / album, you love the music irrespective of what format, I think we forget sometimes we are listening to the music, 
so enjoy the music.
3 Likes
Yes, in these cases one would be goosed. Some sort of vinyl rip required for digital playback.
Even a trawl of the internet might only find a FLAC which was created from a low res version. But you might luck out and find a true 16/44.1, or even a “hires” vinyl rip (these can actually sound very good).
1 Like
@Cmax you are right, sometimes we all forget to listen to music and we seem to care more about our Hi-Fi system. I always put music in the first place, but I can’t deny that a good reproduction makes quite a difference as @Pete_the_painter said. Indeed I find WAV and FLAC files more involving too, they generally show better depth, soundstage, clarity and the presentation is more dynamic. I can’t deny that sometimes these differences can put me off if I have to listen to a low res format.
@IainO Unluckily I don’t think there’s a vinyl rip available, that could be another interesting option.
2 Likes
Aren’t those on Tidal at 16/44.1?
You can’t buy from Tidal anymore since 2022…
Ah, we don’t buy any more - had not noticed.
If they’re on Tidal they’ll be on the internet somewhere.
I’ve been there, and got the tee shirt, the system becomes the be-all and end-all of everything, which is the wrong way round, agree entirely about the format, go for the best available, but if its not available, you have to settle for what is, so either at home, in the car or walking the dog with earphones in, relax, and enjoy the music
3 Likes
Why do you usually rip the CD to wav and convert to alac? What is the benefit of doing so?
I’ve ripped thousands of CD’s to flac and aiff simultaneously. Flac for archiving and aiff for playback on my Mac Mini based set up.
Have I missed something?
1 Like
In my experience, if you wait long enough most music does become available at 16/44.1 eventually even if only for a short time. I used to collect reggae albums (mainly Roots and Dub) and the Rough Guide to Reggae was my bible. Over the years I’ve managed to acquire lossless downloads of just about all of the numerous recommended albums despite many not being available on CD or download for long periods.
I’ve got thousands of CD’s of various genres so the odd album that’s not available doesn’t really bother me. I’m spoilt for choice and usually struggle to decide what to chose to play anyway.
I have no files less than CD quality as I just wouldn’t enjoy the SQ.
1 Like
I guess you’ll have to make do with streaming lossless for now. They may become available to download eventually though.
1 Like
No you you haven’t missed anything 
its me.
I should really amend my post, copying to Wav and converting to alac was a way of keeping a genuine backup of the original CD on hard drive incase anything happened to it, at the time I had a windows desktop, it became a habit, of course nothings ever happened to it, now I’m all Mac so really don’t need to do that, just rip using iTunes, so sorry for any confusion caused.
1 Like
Phew, for a split second the dread of re-ripping crossed my mind😁
2 Likes
No, been there and done that, many moons ago I once owned a Sony laptop which had their own music format on it, can’t remember the format name now, something similar to MP3,so copied over 1500 CD’s, never again, you learn by your mistakes 
1 Like
Me too. I ripped about 2000 CD’s years ago when I was using iTunes for playback. Many of my files became corrupted somehow (iTunes??) and I had to do them all again.
I switched to Audirvana (now using Roon) and re-ripped. It took years for me to complete the task the second time as I just kept getting sick of doing it.
Since then I’ve been through every rip to change the way I recorded genre and to make a few other standardisations to my files.
I don’t want to do any of this again but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. Album art is one thing and scanning of liner notes to embed them is another that I’ve thought about - I’m retired by the way
1 Like
Just a year to go, then I will be joining you in retirement, although way I feel, it might well be sooner .
Album No2 can be found in FLAC on a few www sites, but it seems whoever is marketing it, it’s set up mainly for streaming or MP3 purchase.
Anyhow this is a pic I found for just one of the www download sites.
2 Likes
@Cmax wise words!
Hope you are right, honestly I wouldn’t want to pay for streaming, even in the meantime.
@Cmax and @Dipper you both have an impressive quantity of CDs, how long did it take you to buy them all? My collection is way smaller than yours, maybe 10% of what you have and feels like I have many!
@Mike-B I’ll give you that, you found the album, however it’s suspiciously cheap compared to other platforms. I’ve been looking for info about that shop and didn’t find kind words, it doesn’t appear to be legit and trustworthy (maybe I’m wrong, who knows). Have you (or other forum members) tried this shop? I also wonder where else you found that album in FLAC.
Yeah, I went early and lost out a bit financially but absolutely no regrets.
1 Like