[khaos974]

You can always check the accuracy of your rips with AccurateRip which is an online database, both Foobar and dBPowerAmp have an automated module to do so after ripping..
8DBPowerAmp being the company that set up AccurateRip in the first place.

 

[violinvirtuoso]

Quote:

You can always check the accuracy of your rips with AccurateRip which is an online database, both Foobar and dBPowerAmp have an automated module to do so after ripping..
8DBPowerAmp being the company that set up AccurateRip in the first place.

EAC also supports AccurateRip.

 

[MacT]

If You just want player, use WMP. It's not the best music organiser, but for me it has best interface of them all

 

[Deep Funk]

X2, the interface is great in its simplicity.

 

[AudioDwebe]

Thanks for the EAC suggestion, and taking the slower rip speed route.  I'll definitely look into it.
 
I feel really dumb asking this, but "WMP" is Windows Media Player, right?

 

[Neithan]

Perhaps you should give a try on Aimp2. It's similar to Winamp but more simple.
 

 

[monterto]

I use EAC and I'm quite happy with my rips...

 

[TopQuark]

I was originally with WinAmp, then went to Media Monkey, and ended with Foobar as long as you get this interface:
 

 

[Deep Funk]

WMP is Windows Media Player, it does not allow you to rip in FLAC though... Big let down!

 

[aangen]

I started out using Winamp, I used it for way too long. I was also a Exact Audio Copy snob, and I used it for too damned long as well. I ripped maybe 1300 CDs with EAC. Then I switched to dBpoweramp Reference and I never looked back. It's so much better than EAC, oh my. And no more Winamp either. It isn't even installed on my current machine. Foobar 2000 and dBpoweramp. MMMMMMMM.
 
Winamp was always fine as a player, but it wasn't really useful beyond that for me. I never used it to rip anything.
EAC required lots of setting changes to get things correct. It works with Accurate Rip so you know when you got it right. dBpoweramp does what EAC does/did and it does a few things better. It grabs CD artwork, it even offers choices of artwork in the current version. It also grabs tag info from no less than four sources and then offers a choice. It rips extremely fast with a decent quality drive in secure mode. (unless the disc is NOT in Accurate Rip, then it takes its time). I normally rip to FLAC, get the tags right with Musicbrainz tagger, then do a batch convert to make additional copies in LAME V0. I use the FLAC files on my computers to feed my computer and main audio (Squeezebox Touch, V3 Squeezebox, and Squeezebox Boom). I use the LAME V0s in my portable devices.
 
If you are thinking about ripping thousands of discs (as I have already done), I advise you to get an external drive to back up your rips from your internal drive. Ripping takes a long time and you would hate to lose your hours of labor with a hard drive crash. I rip to my internal drive, immediately back up to my external drive, and then take it to my lake place and copy the data from the external drive to a computer there. That way if one home burns, the other has my tunes. I don't want to do it all over again....
 
As far as MonkeyAudio, I installed and played with that program, but it didn't impress me enough to keep playing with it. Maybe I should have given it more time. Perhaps I will in the future.
 
And Foobar is no picnic to get started with, but oh is it worth the effort. Yes.

 

[aangen]

Quote:

I was originally with WinAmp, then went to Media Monkey, and ended with Foobar as long as you get this interface:
 

He meant the interface above.

 

[tnmike1]

I've long been looking for an alternate to iTunes so interested in this discussion.   Have downloaded MediaMonkey only because, if I'm reading correctly, Winamp does NOT support the purchased iTunes selelctions I have.  Is this correct??
 
ALSO--from what I read I need a decent CD ripper as another downloaded software if I want high-quality rips.  Looking at dbPoweramp but it is not free.  Looks like Exact Audio COpy is.  So will be playing with EAC on my notebook with my Nano to see if all works well before going to my main music collection in my larger computer
 
I suppose my questions, then are these:
 
1--a decent, free ripper is not available in MediaMonkey  correct??
2--WInamp will not support purchased iTUnes albums
3--dbPoweramp is not free
 
Are these correct suppositions?

 

[AudioDwebe]

And adding to the question above, how would one go about ensuring the proper interface in foobar?  Would I be looking for:  foobar 2000 DarkOne v3.0.1?
 
Thanks for all the information. 

 

[FulciLives]

I've tried them all and the one I like is Media Jukebox
 
Here are a couple of screenshots:
 

 

 

[Ham Sandwich]

dBpoweramp can be a reasonably fast ripper.  Depends on the parameters selected when setting it up.  And also depends on the CD drive.
 
One thing dBpoweramp does is use AccurateRip to help speed up the ripping.  If you rip a disc that is in the AccurateRip database, dBpoweramp will read the tracks and then compare against AccurateRip.  If the track compares then dBpoweramp will say "ah, that's good.  No need to re-read the track multiple times and be paranoid".  That can make the rips faster while not compromising the integrity of the rip.  EAC also uses AccurateRip to verify that a rip was good.  But EAC only checks against AccurateRip after the rip is done.  It doesn't use AccurateRip during the rip to determine if it needs to spend extra time re-reading tracks.
 
But the real time savings with dBpoweramp is in its better tagging sources.  Especially if you get the paid for version of dBpoweramp and subscribe to AMG (All Music/Media Guide).  The AMG data is complete and consistent.  Especially for jazz and classical where FreeDB is lacking.  You will save *a lot* of time using dBpoweramp over most any other ripper just because you wont' be wasting so much time manually fixing tags.  All the more if you are doing 1000+ CDs that includes jazz or classical.  I used dBpoweramp for my big re-ripping project.  EAC is fine if you are only ripping a few CDs.  But as soon as you have a stack of 1000+ CDs in front of you the advantages of dBpoweramp become apparent and well worth the cost.
 
A disadvantage of dBpoweramp is that it does not do CUE sheets.  Not really a big deal for normal ripping and normal computer playback needs.  But some folks like CUEs and dBpoweramp don't do them.
 
As for media players you can try them and find one you like.  If the media player is good and proper and doesn't lock you in (like iTunes) it is easy to switch from one to another.  Just as long as the media players you try are nice and save their data in proper tags so you can import all your tagging data into another program.