[Welly Wu]

Has anyone downloaded and installed the latest version of dBPowerAMP Music Convertor along with the Power Pack? What are your opinions about this software ripper / encoder? Is it nearly as accurate as Exact Audio Copy? Are the speed claims true? Lastly, is there any way to "upgrade" the L.A.M.E. component within the program to different versions such as the forthcoming 3.96? Thank you!

 

[geek42]

I've got the new version of DBPowerAmp, with powerpack, and I've ripped several albums with it, some with mild scratches. I've been happy with the sound quality of the rips, but I can't comment on DBPowerAmp's technial proficiency...

To upgrade the LAME version you can just replace the lame.dll file in the directory DBPowerAmp. As a side note, you might want to check out some of the tests going on at www.hydrogenaudio.org before you choose to ugrade - they're testing LAME 3.90.3 -vs- 3.96 using ABX methods, and it looks like the older version has a commanding lead right now - although the test is still in progress, so perhaps I shouldn't comment just yet.

 

[Sczervok]

I've only used the music converter part for ease of use when I'm feeling lazy...

Personally, my impressions don't really bode that well. The powerpack is sorta infested with advertisements...
And the music converter is pretty ghetto for a computer program...
But it works... oh well..

 

[Welly Wu]

Thanks for the insights!

I'm using it right now. I like it so far but I'd like it better when I figure out a method to get the full version.

I think it is a heck of a lot easier than EAC for sure! It's staying in my humble notebook. I think it does what I ask of it and no more -- simple.

 

[GWN]

I've been trying it out for the last few days without the Power Pack. So far, I still prefer EAC. I have a CD with a nasty scratch that spans the end of one track and the start of another. With EAC I can make a copy that will play with no artifacts. Not so with DBPoweramp. The file converter however works well.

 

[geek42]

You could also check out CDex for ripping, which is supposed to be pretty good in 'paranoid mode' (which is in the options somewhere)... It's free, uses LAME, and has built in support for the -alt -presets...

 

[Welly Wu]

I finally got the ahem, full version. I for one think this is a terrific Red Book CD extractor. It has AccurateRip and Accurate Stream support. That's good enough for me. I just love how I can easily choose between different audio codecs with simplicity. The rips are a heck of a lot faster than EAC thank you very much. I've gotten through one entire CaseLogic 264 CD case over the past few days alone. Now, I got another to go. By the way, I'm going to use Ahead NERO AAC+ VBR. Why would someone be mad enough to sit there for like 40 minutes just to rip a CD before waiting another 20 minutes to convert the file to another audio codec per disc?!

The longest it has taken for me to rip and convert a single disc was 18 minutes tops. That's a whole lot better.

So, it seems like I'm dipping my toes into the wide and deep oceans of audio / video codecs. Heh...I might even become some kind of PC Audio guru. Enough!

 

[kunwar]

I use EAC for extracting wave files and then convert them to FLAC for backup using command line frontend.

For converting the songs to other formats DBP is the single finest piece of software i have used.
I mean it kicks ass all over the park.
I haven't had any problems with this.

 

[Welly Wu]

Kunwar:

I like that special ability of DBP too. However, I've extracted Bruce Springsteen's The Rising Red Book CD using EAC prebeta 5 and DBP 10.1 + Power Pack Release 3. Then, I burned the disc images using Ahead NERO 6.3.1.6 and played both CD-Rs on my reference system. I don't hear a difference between the original disc, the EAC burned CD-R, and the DBP burned CD-R. My disc has a few scratches but it's not badly scratched. I don't have badly scratched discs because I take care of my stuff.

However, I have rented and copied Red Book CDs from my public library. THOSE discs are scratched badly. I repeated the same ad hoc experiment with those discs and I still can't hear a difference. I don't know whether it makes a difference but I have two Plextor CD-RW and DVD +/- R/RW drives.

I'd like to point out again that DBP has both Accurate Stream and AccurateRip options. It is also by far the fastest and easiest ripper / convertor I've ever installed on my notebook PC.

I guess people who use EAC are the ones who have spent a lot of time and money into building a PC Audio based rig or have some sort of portable DAP. For my purposes, I think DBP will do the trick.