[geeks] music collection flac and mp3 by device

[Nathan Raymond]

If you want to use iTunes, simplest solution is to store your lossless
files as m4a and then use iTunes to downconvert them in realtime during
sync to AAC lossy files at your choice of bitrate:

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/syncing-lossless-tracks-to-ipod-as-aac-files

http://www.macworld.com/article/3053566/software/the-complete-guide-to-using-itunes-with-lossless-audio.html

If you have FLAC files that you'd like to convert to m4a, or you want to
rip CDs, I recommend XLD:

http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

For tagging, I recommend MusicBrainz Picard:

https://picard.musicbrainz.org/

It supports plugin scripts, and there are a lot of great ones. It can even
scan the audio of tracks, create a fingerprint, and then compare that
fingerprint to other databases of tracks to identify them. The interface
has what I would consider to be a lot of quirks, and a bunch of not-obvious
stuff, but once I learned how to use it, I could not live without it.

If you're looking for an inexpensive lossless player, I'd recommend the
XDuoo X3 player:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/782912/xduoo-x3-dsd-24bit-192khz-cs4398-chip-lossless-music-player

With dual micro-SD cards, you can fit a decent amount of lossless music in
it (though probably not much if you load it up with DSD files).

FYI I spent some time looking at FLAC vs. m4a lossless, and the quick
summary is that FLAC has a CRC checksum integrated into it's file format
which is a nice extra, but the metadata support is (or at least was, when I
looked at it) a mess and not very standardized. In comparison the m4a
metadata support is very standardized and good, and metadata is very
important to me. Otherwise both formats are open source and not encumbered
by any patents.

Besides the tools I mentioned, I store my music on a share on my Synology
NAS which is mounted to my Mac and my HTPC which runs Plex. This means I
can play my music in iTunes, DS Audio on/through the Synology (web
browsers, apps on mobile devices), or Plex (web browsers, apps in dozens of
devices). I like to have many options.