I have seen several similar threads on hear concerning the quality of iTunes as a program for ripping vs other programs, and I wanted to get some feedback, as I am relatively new here. Whenever I rip cd's in iTunes straight to ALAC there are random skips in the tracks at first I thought it was just my ipod classic, as I have heard this is an issue for some people, but even when listening on my laptop they skip in the same spots! I have also noticed that it may not necessarily have been the ALAC encoder because if I convert FLAC to AIFF using dbPoweramp then import to iTunes and re-encode to ALAC, there are no problems at all! Was wondering if anyone else here has had problems with ripping music in iTunes. I have heard that the Nero reverse engineered ALAC codec for dbPoweramp is not as accurate as using iTunes but have not been able to test this.. any thoughts or input?



FYI I am using:
Itunes 9.0.2.25
dBpoweramp Music Converter Reference 13.3
iPod Classic 160(2009)

Do you have iTunes configured to use error correction when ripping? iTunes does not enable that setting as default.

In iTunes 8 it is under Edit >> Preferences >> General tab >> Import Settings... button

I have no idea how well iTunes actually does error correction during rips. I have never tested iTunes ripping with scratched CDs.

If you continue to have problems then I would suggest switching to EAC and/or dBpoweramp. Both EAC and dBpoweramp can do very well with scratched CDs, but they don't enable their highest level of error correction by default. Both also have AccurateRip which can verify your rips against an online database.

Yes, I had this setting checked on iTunes. I don't think that this was the problem though as I have experienced these problems even when ripping brand new cd's. But imho using EAC-->dbPoweramp-->iTunes is the best way, I just like the time saved in just using iTunes though.

EAC uses iTunes to rip to ALAC, so it won't fix your problem. dbPowerAmp uses Nero. It's what I use and I've never had the problem you describe. However, dbPowerAmp is not free, and the codec pack that includes ALAC is an extra fee. IMO the cost is low for a good product and those are one time costs. The fee to use extra meta data databases is an annual fee, but again well worth it IMO.

I currently rip using EAC to flac, then dbPoweramp to convert flac to AIFF, then use iTunes to ALAC, I have found that just using iTunes for converting to ALAC but not ripping does not result in audio glitches/skips.

That's way too involved for me. Nero's ALAC is fine. I only go to EAC when I can't get a CD to rip error free in dbPowerAmp. And I only do that because error reporting is better in EAC.

Yeah it is time consuming a bit, but it gives me peace of mind to tell myself that the "best" or most up to date ALAC encoder was used. I wish I met headfi before I met apple I wouldn't have fallen for the iPod as a DAP, with the exception of it's capacity I see no benefits!

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The iPod has great benefits and is a great DAP. It has gapless playback. That's a biggie for me. I absolutely need gapless for what I like to listen to. For gapless the choices are iPod, Zune, or a selection of the RockBoxable players and a few others. The iPod is a very reasonable choice amongst those.

ALAC is a PITA. A real PITA. Enough of a PITA that I choose not to even deal with it. I sync my iPod with MP3. MP3 is plenty good enough for my portable listening. And the iPod does gapless with LAME MP3.

As for your ripping problems. Do you have another drive that you can try? Maybe iTunes doesn't like your particular CD drive or maybe your particular CD drive is lying to iTunes about error correction (some drives report they do C2 error correction but don't do it right). So maybe a different CD drive would work better. And some CD drives are just plain poor at ripping even when using EAC or dBpoweramp.

Unfortunately I am a laptop nomad so at the moment I am restricted to my 1 and only drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16RS

And yes I wholeheartedly agree that ALAC is a huge PITA, however how else am I to maintain a loss-less backup of my music? I have about 2,000+ cd's as of right now. I have considered doing some serious abx testing with Foobar to see if my ears can discern the diff between MP3 320 and ALAC, as I have heard many people claim that there is no audible difference, and this would allow me more music on my ipod classic and a better battery performance too. I could then keep all music archived in FLAC, and just use Foobar solely for everything. The only plus I see for using Itunes to manage my ipod right now is the genius feature, which I have grown quite fond of and IMHO is quite helpfull in saving me time creating playlists.

ALAC is not PITA for me But, I know that iTunes on a Windows PC is far from the iTunes on a Mac.

Apple software on a PC = PITA
Microsoft software on a Mac = PITA
...strange, isn't it...

Chose one, stay clear of the other

There is the option of using an external USB connected CD/DVD drive for ripping with a laptop. But that's throwing money at a problem and I'm not sure if it would fix it or even what drive to suggest.

Definitely keep ripping to lossless. It doesn't really matter which format cause it can be converted later. The important bit is to make sure you're getting good rips without any glitches or pops or other artifacts. And it looks like iTunes isn't giving good rips at least with the Pioneer drive.

I did some ABX testing between FLAC and MP3. I wasn't able to hear a difference between LAME V0 (and even some of the lower settings) and FLAC on my desktop system with my desktop headphones. It would be pointless to even try the same on the iPod with my portable headphones. But I have poor hearing (I've been tested and it's not good). So someone with better ears could possibly hear differences with the same equipment.

I use J River Media Center. I listen to FLAC on the desktop. When I sync my iPod I have J River configured to convert the FLAC to LAME V0 on the fly. J River saves the MP3 files in a cache directory so on the next sync it doesn't have to convert the same files again. It works syncs can take a while if there are lots of files to convert. I only have to manage and organize one library (mostly FLAC files) and J River takes care of managing the MP3 files that get synced to the iPod.

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I think it's time you bought a product that's more open.

I agree but having 160gigs of lossless music on the go is really convinient the only players that come close to ipod storage is some archos and the zune as far as I know.

Hmm I noticed that there are a lot of J River Media Center fanboys here at head fi who actually prefer it over foobar. Maybe II will look into this, encoding on the fly sounds nice, does Foobar even do that? I will read into it more, I also am not crazy about "buying" any software.

Also it may just be my dvd drive or my laptop's configuration, I tried ripping some albums on a co-worker's desktop using iTunes 9, and had no problems whatsoever.

I've ripped more than 150 CDs so far and have had no problems. I rip to ALAC. My CDs are in excellent condition and I make sure that ITunes Error checking is always on. I think you need to use a different CD drive. Itunes is not your problem.