[Ic3Floe]

Quick question, say I rip a cd to my computer using flac/apple lossless/ape, then later I burn a copy of those files as an audio cd, what kind of quality loss am I going to get compared to the original cd. I imagine that some quality would be lost through decoding/encoding, but to what extent does the actual burning process/blank cd affect the quality of the output cd?

This would be solely for the purposes of backing up my cd collection and making copies of cds that I own.

 

[Cthulhu]

Unless you have a dodgy CD drive, quality lost will be zero. If your encoder/decoder is lossless (FLAC is) quality lose in that process will be zero. Make sure you use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to make the rips though.

 

[jpr703]

A good drive should give you a perfect copy. However, if you use cheap CDR's the dye that forms the 1s and 0s on the disc can start to fade after a couple of years. Try Mitsui (MAM-A), Taiyo Yuden, or Verbatim discs if you want your copies to last.

 

[Erukian]

burners do NOT give out perfect copy's. The best copy you'll get is something that's pressed and then air-tight sealed. The original and the burn will give out MD5 sum matching copies, but the burn will usually never be as good as the original.

Any defect, dirt, fingerprint, tiny floating wet particles in the air that get on the disc, what have you will cause jitter on a CD.

Jitter isnt only limited to optical output. It's easily written to a disc by lasers.

Plextor's PX-716A features a Intelligent Tilt feature to reduce jitter by scanning the disc during burn for defects or foreign particles and then "works around it" sorta so it causes less jitter.

I'd love to be proven wrong =/

 

[StrikerTek]

Sooo, just curious, but how do they make the original discs to where they're perfect audio quality that a burner will have such a hard time reproducing?

 

[byronyu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StrikerTek Sooo, just curious, but how do they make the original discs to where they're perfect audio quality that a burner will have such a hard time reproducing?

cd's u buy (software or music) are pressed, while cd's u burn are wriiten through chemical reactions. Pressed cd's last around 4x as long. Also, pressed cds are made in sterile enviroments with equipment costing +millions of dollars. Burned cds are made with equipment costing hundreds of dollars.

 

[kalzone]

so long as you keep a backup of your FLACs you can always reburn the CD should it start sounding noticeably inferior.

 

[JeffL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StrikerTek Sooo, just curious, but how do they make the original discs to where they're perfect audio quality that a burner will have such a hard time reproducing?

It has to do with the actual CD format itself, and how the data is encoded onto the disc. A CD audio disc is not like a data disc, in that the sectors contain locational information. Also, the CD-A format requires precise timing to read the stream properly. Because of this you get jitter.

When ripping a CD, jitter is a factor, but because the sector is entirely audio data, you have other problems. Because of this, EAC (exact audio copy) was written to ensure that you get a perfect rip.

 

[s m @]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffL Because of this, EAC (exact audio copy) was written to ensure that you get a perfect rip.

Exact-a-tigly. EAC reads the disc more than once and compares the 1s and 0s... if it gets a different read at any point it will keep reading that sector until it gets a consensus... if it can't do that in reasonable time it will tell you that there is a 'suspicious position' at whatever time on the disc, and move on, so it's the best option, especially for damaged discs. It's free.

Even at suspicious positions there still often won't be any audible flaw since all that means is that there's a digit or two that it can't be absolutely sure of. Even with a direct rip/clone generic program you still won't usually be able to hear any problems. EAC was created, I think, more to address concerns within the rare/live music trading community about problems popping up after a disc is 100+ generations down the line, and so is the standard within those sharing/trading circles. Still, it's a great program, it can take care of all your ripping and burning needs, and when set up properly, does so easily and perfectly. The rip takes a bit longer, but not so long that is should be a concern to anyone outside the mass download/burn (stealing) set, which probably isn't that well-represented here. For anyone with interest, the program and setup instructions (the more fussy end of which will probably be unneccessary for the average user) can be found here:

www.exactaudiocopy.org