There's was no way I was jumping into the middle of the "Quality of CDRs VS. Audio CDs" discussion. Wow, what a mind bender. I've gone to that one several times. So, to keep this a simpler thread and hopefully solve a problem...

What software can people recommend for the Mac that will rip audio CDs and offer decent error correction? Is iTunes any good (or Soundjam?). Or is there a better program out there? I'm burning with Toast Titanium, which I hope is pretty good. (At least you get your choice of burn speeds, unlike iTunes.)

I've had goog luck with both Toast and iTunes.

Lextek

You're talking about burning real audio CDs, not MP3 CDs, right?

Toast is generally considered the "standard" although the new Discribe is supposed to be pretty good, as well.

I personally prefer to rip tracks to disc (uncompressed) first, then burn the CD, rather than burning from CD to CDR. Toast Audio Extractor (in the "Extras" folder in the Toast folder) does great extraction.

Toast here.........I've never had a problem. I go direct from CD to CDR at 2x speed. Takes longer, but I've never encountered any errors.

I asked the same ? not too long ago at the old DCC board, and got a few good responses form a couple of Mac/Audio guru types. You might want to check it out.

Too bad Mac has nothing comparable to EAC or Feurio or CDRWin, which are basically the best.

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You sure, pigmode? Isn't EAC just an exact, bit-by-bit extraction of the audio CD? I'm confused as to how one exact digital copy of an audio CD can be better than another exact digital copy...

No it's more comprehensive than that, and I'm just refering to the technical aspects of extraction, rather than all the convenience related features. I understand EAC but am not technically savvy enough to explain it. Basically EAC can extract in secure mode and will attempt to reread errors rather than simply writing them to disc. There are also many options to optimize the CD-RW drive for accurate extraction. here's a link:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Skim the front page and the FAQ, It's pretty interesting. EAC is a bitch to configure, but I've been told my CDR copies are high quality.

I second Pigmode's suggestion. EAC is excellent.

But the secret is mostly in your drive. Digital Audio Extraction used to be quite a difficult process, both in quality and speed. Now things are considerably better.

Plextor is still ruling the scene, but other hardware manufacturers now have good solutions too.

Right, EAC's "secret" is supposedly that it is much better at extracting an error-free data stream. My question is that if TAE on the Mac does a similarly-good job of extraction, shouldn't there be little difference in the resulting CD?

(of course, the key question is whether or not TAE does in fact do as good of a job)

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Which comes back to my original question, if there is anything better than Toast or iTunes out there for the mac? Apparently not, as those two programs seem to be it, software-wise. Hopefully they do do a good job. Honestly, they sound pretty good to me. I've gotten some burns from some people that haven't sounded good, and I think mine always sound pretty faithful to the original.

More info:

http://cgi.dhot.com/cgi-bin/ubb_foru...c&f=3&t=000808

Luke knows what he is talking about.

I have used all of these for quite some time and can speak to their quality. Sound Jam and iTunes are essentially the same program. Apple purchased the code and hired the original author to create iTunes. iTunes was combined with some cd-burner software that Apple also purchased so that it could write cd's as well as rip.

As far as ripping quality on iTunes and SoundJam most of the time it works great. However, with older/scratched CD's my luck has been as good. If you rip straight to aiff instead of mp3 the CD's that iTunes burns will sound great.

TAE is a great ripper. I have ripped CD's that the computer wouldn't even play anymore and after going through TAE they sounded great. I'm talking CD's that make that anoying ticking noise because of read errors. I have this problem a lot because I don't treat my CD's very well. I believe what EAC does is the same thing that TAE does with CD's. If it gets to a spot that there is a read error it try's it over again. I do know that TAE doesn't continually try over and over however I remember reading in the docs that it does make a couple passes at these spots to try and get a better read. EAC might just keep trying until it gets it pefect, I'm not sure.

Toast and Jam are almost the same in audio burning capabilities. This didn't used to be the case. However, I don't think Roxio even makes Jam anymore. Which is too bad because it could burn in Cross Fades on the fly which was a great feature and something that Toast is unable to do. Hope this helps a bit.

*Addition* It is important to note that the drive you are using to rip can make a pretty big difference in how well your computer rips. Newer drives do a much better job. I seem to have better luck with DVD-Rom drives than plain CD drives. Probably has something to do with the neccessarily better optics.

Jamie

How does Nero compare to EAC and Feurio? I've been using Nero for as long as I can remember...

It depends what you want. If it works for you , fine, but EAC is recognized as the best. EAC is free, and Feurio is nagware.

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http://www.roxio.com/en/products/jam/index.html



Jam is basically the higher-end version of Toast. Aimed more at the audio market and people creating their own Redbook CDs (Toast is aimed more at all-around CD burning (data, music, MP3s, etc.).

Roxio is also coming out with a new product (cleverly called "Toast with Jam" ):

http://www.roxio.com/en/products/jam...amdetail.jhtml