[audioengr]

I've had a few customer feedbacks and determined this is the best method currently. Next week there may be a better one.

Ripper - dbpoweramp
Ripping drive - TEAC
USB External Slot in CD-RW/DVD drive Gateway P-7811 on eBay, also External, CD-RW DVD Combo Drives, Drives Storage, Computers Networking (end time 08-May-09 12:06:43 BST)

Here's why:
RipNAS: DVD Drive Selection - dbpoweramp

Format - .wav

Player - iTunes version 8

So, this means ripping on a PC and then move it to the Mac and play it with iTunes.

Try it and let us know what you think.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Why rip to WAV? You lose the tagging data unless you try to recover it based on parsing the file name. Is there something wrong with dBpoweramps ALAC encoding? I don't have a Mac or do ALAC so I don't know if there is something wrong with their implementation or not.

 

[Slogra]

I like the drive recommendation. A good drive is very hard to find nowadays. Other than that i use EAC for ripping to FLAC and Foobar for playing, which is also a "best" option

.

 

[fishpatrol]

"Best" method in what way? DB is easy to use, but I'd rather use EAC and AccurateRip to compare my results with other's. Why move the WAV files to a Mac for playback?

 

[Currawong]

Hi Steve,

What particular customer feedback has lead to you think that this method is the best way?

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishpatrol /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd rather use EAC and AccurateRip to compare my results with other's.

I'm pretty sure AccurateRip was first released for dBpoweramp, so credit for this goes to Spoon/Illustrate.

 

[linuxworks]

one might also say an old ancient (very) plextor drive (around the time they were still scsi parallel and ide parallel) would be the preferred ripping drive.

and like others, I prefer to rip to flac and not wave. wave has no metadata in its 'container' and flac is 100% of what the wave is, just smaller and taggable.

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif one might also say an old ancient (very) plextor drive (around the time they were still scsi parallel and ide parallel) would be the preferred ripping drive.

I'm still using Plextor scsi drives to rip and burn. My one complaint is the the UltraPlex Wide cdrom has gotten flaky with time. Oh, I guess another complaint would be that Plextools is such an unwieldy program. Eac works just fine.

 

[linuxworks]

its too bad that cdrom drives are essentially unrepairable ;(

I have quite a few older scsi plextors but over time, they gum up (dust, etc) and really once the focus mech isn't able to move as quickly, your ability to track the disc degrades to the point of being useless.

modern cdrom drives are even worse. $20 items that last a year, if even that.

 

[emelius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxworks /img/forum/go_quote.gif one might also say an old ancient (very) plextor drive (around the time they were still scsi parallel and ide parallel) would be the preferred ripping drive.

or an even older Plextor 2x caddied drive from back when they were called Texel...

eac is still king...we're not allowed to link to ripping guides from a certain breakfast chain...

i do use dbpoweramp still to convert to alac....

 

[Jaska]

Just in fairness, I thought I would point out that Spoon has written on his dBpoweramp Secure Ripping Test page that "10 different CD drives were purchased especially for this task," and that "Out of all the drives tested this Plextor [PX-230A] ripped the best, not much work was required by EAC or dBpoweramp."

In contrast, on the RipNAS: DVD Drive Selection - dBpoweramp page (that's the same page referred to by the OP), Spoon writes that they "tested all the main drives on the market," which one would think would be a lot more than 10, and that their "choice of drive [the Teac 224] is obvious."

I wonder which drive is actually the one determined to perform best with dBpoweramp, since similar claims have been made for two different drives. I have owned the PX-230A for a long time, and pretty much swear by it, but I'd try another drive if it actually performed any better--but preferably not a slot-loading drive like the Teac.

 

[catachresis]

^-Yeah, it is pitiable that cd-roms and burners are effectively disposable devices. I confess that just about every other element of new computers is equally subject to cyclical obsolescence. I bought an external usb dvd-r burner finally last year, and I'm sure that I haven't used it more than 20 times. It will be another six years before anyone convinces me to buy something in blu-ray format. It's all such a laughable waste.

But I get real satisfaction out of the old scsi gear. I've had the 2 plex cd drives and the one old toshiba dvdrom for six years, I think. They haven't been replaced. I upgraded the scsi card to a U320 adapter and stopped there years ago. I've bought larger, newer scsi drives as the prices fell (and tech places have gone bankrupt and liquidated). I can see that keeping the drivers current may be a problem with successive versions of Windows, but I'm content to sit tight with what I've got now. I can swap-out the proc, mobo, and rams every three years when I get the fits of upgradeitis.

 

[daglesj]

Yep still using my 'proper' Plextor drive with all the added extras. I looked them up recently and they are just re-named Sony/NEC drives now (have been for a while).

Hardly worth the large premium for the name. I know the original Plextors were other manufacturers drives but at least they were modded to get extra functionality.

Getting back to the 'best ripping scenario ever'......

....why?

 

[linuxworks]

actually, the old old plextors were build BY plextor. that's why they were $400 and $600 (I still have such a 4x and 8x scsi drive that costed a small fortune!)

plextor also made their own motors, from what I understand. to keep control over all aspects that would affect accuracy.

now its a non-company that simply rebrands. never buy a current plextor since its junk ;(

 

[krmathis]

Interesting!
Too bad the "best method for ripping" require MS Windows though...