diff -Naur alac_decoder.orig/alac.c alac_decoder/alac.c
--- alac_decoder.orig/alac.c	2005-03-05 13:29:56.000000000 +0000
+++ alac_decoder/alac.c	2005-12-13 04:24:08.000000000 +0000
@@ -225,17 +225,33 @@
         alac->input_buffer_bitaccumulator *= -1;
 }
 
-/* hideously inefficient. could use a bitmask search,
- * alternatively bsr on x86,
- */
+extern char leading_zero_cache[];
+
+/* using a 16-bit cache to speed
+   things up.  (This *IS* faster than
+   using a bitmask binary search)
+   with 16K of overhead, this is worth it */
 static int count_leading_zeros(int32_t input)
 {
-    int i = 0;
+    int i=0,j;
+	int lookup=input;
+
+	if(!(input >> 16))
+	{
+		i += 16;
+		input <<= 16;
+	}
+	else
+		lookup >>= 16;
+	if((j = leading_zero_cache[lookup]))
+		return j;
+
     while (!(0x80000000 & input) && i < 32)
     {
         i++;
         input = input << 1;
     }
+	leading_zero_cache[lookup] = i;
     return i;
 }
 
diff -Naur alac_decoder.orig/main.c alac_decoder/main.c
--- alac_decoder.orig/main.c	2005-03-05 13:30:51.000000000 +0000
+++ alac_decoder/main.c	2005-12-13 04:23:57.000000000 +0000
@@ -38,12 +38,16 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <string.h>
+#include <strings.h>
 
 #include "demux.h"
 #include "decomp.h"
 #include "stream.h"
 #include "wavwriter.h"
 
+//global
+unsigned char leading_zero_cache[1 << 16];
+
 int host_bigendian = 0;
 
 alac_file *alac = NULL;
@@ -143,7 +147,14 @@
         if (verbose)
             fprintf(stderr, "read %i bytes. total: %i\n", outputBytes, bytes_read);
 
-        fwrite(pDestBuffer, outputBytes, 1, output_file);
+		/* North */
+		if(fwrite(pDestBuffer, outputBytes, 1, output_file) != 1)
+		{
+			//kill program if pipe has closed
+			if(errno == EPIPE && output_file == stdout)
+				exit(1);
+		}
+        //fwrite(pDestBuffer, outputBytes, 1, output_file);
     }
     if (verbose)
         fprintf(stderr, "done reading, read %i frames\n", i);
@@ -275,6 +286,9 @@
     demux_res_t demux_res;
     unsigned int output_size, i;
 
+	/* North */
+	bzero(leading_zero_cache,1<<16);
+
     set_endian();
 
     setup_environment(argc, argv);