IPOD CLASSIC 7th Gen, Apple or WAV?

I just bought a used car and am in the same boat. 120 GB iPod with all Apple Lossless, and the cable that plugs into the bottom of the iPod, not the earbud input. That's important, because it means the crappy iPod amplifier isn't doing the work; the high end(ish) car stereo is amplifying the signal instead. Not the equal of my home or even computer system, but well within reason for road trips.

I don't drive to work (it's a five block walk), so this is meant to be a 2-5 hour drive type of setup. It works more than well for that purpose.

Thedautch
Oh yeah I will not use the headphone out, the other key aspect to the USB to Apple connection vs. minijack is that it will also keep the unit Charged so thats a nice advantage as well.

I guess just use the Itune and load it up via Apple Lossless?

Thanks

You'll never get everyone to agree on what is best, so educate yourself the best you can.

I think there is a lot more to digital than is known by the average guy, talking of myself; I have this belief based partly due to the vast differences in results reported.

I have compared Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV and have not been able to discern a difference. Making a change in my system recently, I have copied some files once again to see if I feel the same and while I haven't spent much time comparing them yet, the little I did compare yeilded no difference. (Let me note that while Apple Lossless is a compressed format, it is in a manner where is can be converted back, so no data is truly lost.)

Those that claim to hear a difference I have come to wonder if it has more to do with the equipment used, where certain conversions are done better via some brands, designs, etc.

One pet peeve of mine is that the iPod is talked of in a negative light, such as, "an iPod is not going to compete with a nice in home CD", this I do not agree with, nor due a number of reviewers.

Most are aware of the Wadia iTransport which bypasses the DAC within the iPod, making the iPod a hard drive based source. Now we can go in many directions here, but there are already many threads on most of those subjects.

To finally address your question directly, I'd chose Apple Lossless or AIFF. AIFF is Apple's version of WAV, so the file is full size, but the benefit of AIFF over WAV is its ability to carry metatags along with all your music so you have cover art, etc. These two formats will allow you to easily store your music, per your request. Apple Lossless will take approximately half the space of AIFF, it is your call.

One pet peeve of mine is that the iPod is talked of in a negative light, such as, "an iPod is not going to compete with a nice in home CD", this I do not agree with, nor due a number of reviewers.

The question concerned use of iPod in a car, that typically implies that the on board DAC of the iPod is what will be listened to. For that reason it will not be equal to a good home CD player with better DAC.

You basically posted the same thing when you wrote

Most are aware of the Wadia iTransport which bypasses the DAC within the iPod, making the iPod a hard drive based source.

Well, actually the way my Ipod will be used is via the USB line, so actually my understanding is that the car stereo will be getting the raw digital signal, not an analog already D/A conversion from the Ipod. The car stereo does have DSP and Dac's built in from what I am reading anyway. That being said only thing nobody has answered is how to do it!?

Okay so AIFF as stated is probably the best overall route, I am fine with that, however where is this done? Do you just download your latest version of ITUNEs and as you transfer a CD into the "Itune Library" or whatever you will actually have options of what format to convert this into while saving the file? Or is this gonna take some more work and third party program etc… Besides an easy Itune interface? Again I have not even used it yet, I am very Savvy with all this stuff once I do it, just don't even own the device yet and have no reason to even really get started until I know how basic or complex this will get.

Thanks