FLAC Ripping issues.

[deadly55]

I'm using EAC, all my FLACs seem to have a bit of hiss and other things like that in them, i've listened to the same files with my er6is and hd 212s with the same issue, the problem doesn't happen when i listen to the cd, It's got maybe 6 light scratches on it.
Sound card is a Creative X-fi XtremeGamer.

 

[krmathis]

Do you hear the same hiss (and other things) from files ripped to ex. WAV?
I bet this is totally unrelated to FLAC, but rather the ripping process itself. The scratches, non-ideal EAC settings (burst or like), ...

 

[deadly55]

i'll try wav and edit this post, I wouldn't have thought the scratched would have done that much, in EAC i'm using Secure mode with the first 2 options checked, i did the C2 error scan thing and it found none.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Scratches would only possibly affect the areas of audio on the CD that are under the scratch. If you are getting hiss or other audible differences over the entire track or CD then something else is going on.

If you have a scratched CD that doesn't rip properly you'll typically hear a very short audible glitch (a pop or similar artifact) where EAC has either read incorrect sample data or tried to interpolate missing sample data.

If you have AccurateRip enabled in EAC and EAC is reporting that the rip of the scratched CD is accurate then the rip is fine and there are no problems due to the scratches.

I would suspect that the differences you are hearing would be more likely due to different playback settings/options for the CD playback and the FLAC playback. Maybe extra DSP processing, EQ, sample rate conversion, or similar for your FLAC playback that isn't happening for the CD playback.

 

[nspindel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ham Sandwich /img/forum/go_quote.gif Scratches would only possibly affect the areas of audio on the CD that are under the scratch. If you are getting hiss or other audible differences over the entire track or CD then something else is going on. If you have a scratched CD that doesn't rip properly you'll typically hear a very short audible glitch (a pop or similar artifact) where EAC has either read incorrect sample data or tried to interpolate missing sample data. If you have AccurateRip enabled in EAC and EAC is reporting that the rip of the scratched CD is accurate then the rip is fine and there are no problems due to the scratches. I would suspect that the differences you are hearing would be more likely due to different playback settings/options for the CD playback and the FLAC playback. Maybe extra DSP processing, EQ, sample rate conversion, or similar for your FLAC playback that isn't happening for the CD playback.

Ditto. He speaks the truth.

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadly55 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i've listened to the same files with my er6is

There you go. The ER-6i is a hiss monster. Are you even playing your CDs via the same system (your computer) as you're using for your FLAC files?

 

[deadly55]

Jaska.. no i'm not as i can't get it to sync so i've been listening to each track for about a minute, it's also hissy with my hd 212s. i've also noticed that the dvd drive doesn't change it's state when i put a cd in, it stays as dvd drive, well this time it's labeled Audio CD, another CD Accurate Rip didn't match up (first 5 tracks), both of the cds have been used maybe twice now..

 

[Jaska]

Then it sounds like you have a cleaner headphone output on your CD-based system than you do on your computer, portable player or whatever other device you're using to listen to the FLAC files.

I think the problem is not with the files, but with either the earphones/headphones or the source and amp.

As far as AccurateRip not matching your rips, there can be many explanations for this. Most likely would be that your CD is of a different pressing than the one(s) that have been ripped by others. What's important is to check the EAC output for errors in addition to the AccurateRip results.

 

[deadly55]

both the cd and flac are being played on my computer.

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaska /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you even playing your CDs via the same system (your computer) as you're using for your FLAC files?

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadly55 /img/forum/go_quote.gif no i'm not

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadly55 /img/forum/go_quote.gif both the cd and flac are being played on my computer.

I'm afraid I don't follow

 

[deadly55]

i thought the first question was refering to playing them at the same time.. sorry about that confusion. I just reripped it sounds betters.. although a few tracks got 99.9% in quality or what it is called.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Most computers now-a-days do not play back CDs analog style. The most common way to have things set up now-a-days is to play it digitally. What the computer does is rip the CD in real time as you play it and the audio you hear is actually ripped audio data. The audio is not going through the DAC chip on the CD-ROM drive and then sent analog to the sound card. The audio is not getting the error recovery that audio CD playback enables, it only gets the error recovery that very fast ripping enables (and that's not the same as what a real audio CD player does).

In the old days it was common to have an analog audio cable going from the CD-ROM drive to the sound card. The CD-ROM would play like a normal stand-alone audio CD player, the audio would go through the DAC on the CD-ROM and the analog signal would get sent to the sound card. Now-a-days that is very uncommon in desktop PCs and laptops are a whole different matter (you can't open up a laptop and add an analog cable).

So the end result being you are listening to a ripped data stream from the CD when it is played back on a computer. The quality of that very quick ripping is going to be lower (less error recovery) than what EAC does. Both of your listening tests are ripped audio data unless you have an analog cable inside the computer and the CD player software is configured to play the analog signal.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadly55 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i thought the first question was refering to playing them at the same time.. sorry about that confusion. I just reripped it sounds betters.. although a few tracks got 88.9% in quality or what it is called.

Clean the CD and try ripping it on a different computer. The CD/DVD drive plays a big part in the ability to properly rip a scratched CD. I have two CD drives in my desktop computer. One of the drives does a good job of ripping scratched CDs while the other drive is absolutely horrible at ripping scratched CDs. You may have a poorly performing drive in your computer. So try it in a different computer and make sure the CD is clean. You may be surprised and end up with an accurate rip.

 

[deadly55]

i really need to check my spelling more often.. it's 99 not 88 >_< anyways i changed the error checking EAC to high and the hissing is gone. sorry about the massive confusion here. Also kind of odd the play/pause/volume up & down buttons on my keyboard fixed same with autoplay on cds.