New Apple Lossless encoder??

The concept behind lossless compression is sound. It should generate output identical to the CD original. A relatively full explanation can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_compression

Shorthand example: if a digital signal is 111111111100000011111111110000001111111111000000, that takes 48 characters to describe. I could also describe it as 3x((10x1)&(6x0)) which takes 16 characters to describe. In terms of data file size, I've achieved 3:1 compression. What's obvious is that you need to be able to decompress (translate the formula) in realtime. Compression formulas are much more complicated than this little example, but for computer chips these days, this is a very easy task.

Having said that, I've NEVER listened or compared or tested Apple's output, but I expect that feeding to a good D/A converter would yield CD quality.

it is still a compressed format and is convenient but not the same as transpiort and dac combo with good digital cable...of course analog still sounds better than all of it!!!

I have not done any A/B blind testing. As an audiophile, of course I shy away from any sort of objective, scientific methods.

But anecdotally, I think my WAV files undoubtedly sound the best, and as I have said in many other threads - why even risk a loss of sound quality when hard drives are only getting cheaper!?

Also, it really irritates me that I spent a lot of money downloading Apple alledgedly "lossless" files that I can't use on open source players like Foobar. Even worse, I think there are some other protective codes which might limit playback to a certain number of computers?

I like the iTunes interface, and would happily pay to download WAV files, but I am otherwise staying away from Apple.

They are closing to spirit in Microsoft than their ads would have you believe.