[Mhog55]

I have several CDs that I need to rip. I've seen conversion programs such as EZ CD converter and another one I forget. Are they worth using? What are the preferred settings to use within the program? Is it going to make any difference in how I hear the album, opposed to just straight ripping it? The files would go to an SD card for my daps.

 

[earmonger]

Are you on PC or Mac? There are free programs for both that will rip to lossless FLAC.

 

[Mhog55]

Are you on PC or Mac? There are free programs for both that will rip to lossless FLAC.

PC.. Yes, that's what I was wondering. I have other downloads, CDs converted to 24/96 FLAC. Do you think it's a worthy thing to do, rather than just ripping the CD without the conversion? Which program do you use?

 

[earmonger]

There is no point in converting to higher bitrates like 24/96 from a CD. It's not giving you better information, only bigger file sizes.

Just copy the .wav files or, if you want to save space, use FLAC. If your CDs come up as .aiff files, use a free converter to get WAV or FLAC. I use Fre:ac on Mac, EZ CD looks just fine too. VLC player has lots of functions, also free. EAC mentioned below is very accurate, only a little slower.

 

[Mhog55]

There is no point in converting to higher bitrates like 24/96 from a CD. It's not giving you better information, only bigger file sizes.

Just copy the .wav files or, if you want to save space, use FLAC. If your CDs come up as .aiff files, use a free converter to get WAV or FLAC. I use Fre:ac on Mac, EZ CD looks just fine too. VLC player has lots of functions, also free.

Thank You

 

[sygnus21]

I have several CDs that I need to rip. I've seen conversion programs such as EZ CD converter and another one I forget. Are they worth using? What are the preferred settings to use within the program? Is it going to make any difference in how I hear the album, opposed to just straight ripping it? The files would go to an SD card for my daps.

See my post here - "Should I rip my CDs to my PC?"

That said, I use dBpoweramp (paid). Its close competitor is EAC (Exact Audio Copy), which is free. Most people serious about ripping their CDs use either dBpoweramp or EAC.
I've never used EAC so, I can't speak on it, but I am a dBpoweramp user and it does all I need and is very accurate in its rips. Most any rip program worth its salt should be able to read and recognize a CD to gather its album info (metadata or tags) to also include album art. And dB does this very well.

I also rip in FLAC which is lossless (meaning you don't lose sound quality). For me, I also don't compress so my FLAC files are ripped uncompressed, which makes them large files, so if storage space is a concern, I'd recommend you use a compression level of 6, which most rippers using FLAC will be defaulted to, anyway. For me storage isn't an issue as my 2700 CDs weigh in at 1.6TB, but I've got a 12 TB NAS drive, so plenty of storage for me.

BTW, are you sure your FLAC files are 24/96. Casue most rippers rip at 16bit/44k. I'd be curious how you managed to get 24/96?

PC.. Yes, that's what I was wondering. I have other downloads, CDs converted to 24/96 FLAC. Do you think it's a worthy thing to do, rather than just ripping the CD without the conversion? Which program do you use?

This is but one of the thousands of rips I have as shown in JRiver Media Center (version 32). All the info there, including image has been gathered by dBpoweramp...

You can also edit tags (metadata) in dBpoweramp, as well as JRiver itself. In JRiver, I've edited the Genre tag to indicate "Jazz-Vocals" for this album.

 

[Mhog55]

Yes, I don't want compressed files. As for the 24/96, my friend was using DB as well. I believe he up sampled the disc to WAV format. Some of them did not sound very good. I don't think they were true 24/96 though. I don't think you can actually up sample a 16 bit CD, but that's how the album displays on my daps anyhow.
I'm just not sure which settings and selections to make when ripping. If I remember correctly, there were several options in a drop down menu.

 

[sygnus21]

Yes, I don't want compressed files.

While you might say, you don't want to compress your FLAC files (I don't), do be aware they will be near exact same size as a WAV file, so if space is a concern, you might consider that when deciding on whether to compress or not.

Here's a single album by Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue. The album has 6 tracks averaging a time of around 9 minutes a track for a total time of 56 minutes. Here, in uncompressed FLAC the album weighs 560meg. That's half a gig for one album!!!

Miles Davis Bitches Brew, a double CD totaling 7 tracks, averaging 17 minutes a track (high track time 27 minutes, lowest track 4:25 minutes) weighs in at 1gig!

If you have the storage space for uncompressed FLAC (or WAV) files as I do, no problem. If you're limited in storage space, you're going to eat through it like nothing... unless you have so few CDs.

As for the 24/96, my friend was using DB as well. I believe he up sampled the disc to WAV format. Some of them did not sound very good. I don't think they were true 24/96 though. I don't think you can actually up sample a 16 bit CD, but that's how the album displays on my daps anyhow.

What media player? I ask because JRiver will software up sample certain albums titles to 24-bit though some built in algorithm it uses. Basically, if the album was an HDCD encoded album, JRiver ups it to 24-bit. I don't understand all the wizardry behind it, but it does that to some of my HDCD encoded albums. It even did it to one of my vinyl albums I recorded to CD, then ripped to PC in FLAC. This feature was introduced in JRiver Media Center 23. We're now on JRMC 32.

At any rate I ask because if you're running JRiver, that "might" explain why you see some files in 24-bit. But that's strictly a guess on my end, and there could very well be other reasons for it as well, so...

I'm just not sure which settings and selections to make when ripping. If I remember correctly, there were several options in a drop down menu.

I don't know which program you're using, but I'm sure there are videos online.

 

[Roseval]

Another vote for dBpoweramp.

• It is fast and stable.
• Easy to configure.
• It supports AccurateRip (they invented it)
• Meta data from GD3, Discogs, SonataDB, Musicbrainz & freedb

Can be used as a format converter as well.

 

[Mhog55]

I'm not worried about storage space. All of my music files are quite large - flac. Many are well over a full gig. I use the Hiby music app on my 3 daps, 2 Shanling and 1 Hiby.

 

[Lou Erickson]

I've used Exact Audio Copy and it's always worked well and been able to rip any CD I gave it flawlessly. I find the way it generates filenames for the tracks to be awkward and the UI to be a little clunky, but it's free and if you only have a few to do it works well.

 

[Mhog55]

Think I'll go with DB as it seems to be the most simple one stop option. Appreciate the help fellas.