iTunes And Apple's Lossless Encoder

Q: I am a huge fan of classical music, from J.S. Bach to Mozart. Can I download my collection to an iPod without losing fidelity?

A: You can come close, but you may need to change the way Apple's iTunes program copies CDs to your computer. Hit its EDIT menu, select PREFERENCES and click the IMPORTING tab.

Your first option is to increase the bit rate of iTune's MP3 or AAC (Advanced Audio Compression) copies to preserve more of your music's finer points. In either format, try a rate of 160 or 192 kilobits per second; if you'll be saving your CDs as MP3 files, choosing the "variable bit rate" option (select CUSTOM from the drop-down menu listing good, high and higher-quality bit rates) should help, too.

If you still feel something's missing from these digital copies in these or even higher bit rates, try a third iTunes format, the APPLE LOSSLESS ENCODER. This preserves every detail of a song but can compress it only by half, instead of by a factor of 10. So instead of carrying around 5,000 three to four minute songs on an iPod, you might fit only 1,000. These files also won't work on non-iPod players.

Microsoft offers a similar option, WINDOWS MEDIA LOSSLESS, in its Windows Media Players 9 and 10.