Thomas
Rank: Soloist
Posts: 19
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Post by Thomas on Dec 22, 2019 4:00:24 GMT
Hey! I've recently been trying to do whatever I can to improve the actual physical quality of CDs for better playback, but I need to think about how I do the playback too! Up until now I've been converting CDs just with my computer. I've got an ASUS BW-16D1HT as my optical drive and use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract .wav files from the disc then export them as .flac for playback. All of this research into improving the playback has made me wonder if using a proper CD player to capture the audio in real-time like I do with vinyl would give me different/better results? I already had a Scarlett 2i2 which is what I've been using to transfer records, and I just picked up a Denon DN-C635 for a steal I couldn't resist ($25 shipped!). So my question is, do you think that connecting the CD player to the Scarlett via XLR and recording the playback in real time would render different/better/worse results than just using EAC like I've been doing? I'm also open to any suggestions on other transfer methods or equipment that could give me a better end result. Thanks! |
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Post by MartinT on Dec 22, 2019 9:10:33 GMT
No, EAC will do an excellent job of recovering the error corrected data from the CD. I don't think capturing a CD player's output will be better, probably worse.
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Post by MikeMusic on Dec 22, 2019 16:32:01 GMT
A ripper !
I was very surprised to hear Nova Fidelity x45 and X50
The internal CD player is not at all bad
RIP to file and playback to a different level of sound.
Very impressive
Takes analogue input so I could convert my reel to reel tapes to file ... one day
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Post by Tim on Dec 22, 2019 21:44:03 GMT
No, EAC will do an excellent job of recovering the error corrected data from the CD. I don't think capturing a CD player's output will be better, probably worse. Agreed, 100% |
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Thomas
Rank: Soloist
Posts: 19
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Post by Thomas on Dec 22, 2019 22:02:12 GMT
Well, looks like I will be sticking with EAC for now then. I took a look at the rippers mentioned by MikeMusic, but those are WAY out of my price range at the moment. I guess the Denon I picked up will just be for straight listening or to import the rare copy protected CD that EAC can't open, of which I think I've only had one. Side note: Copy protection may not actually be an issue anymore, since I haven't had a problem since upgrading my optical drive. I got that specific ASUS so that I could use the custom firmware offered by MakeMKV, which removes all software/firmware restrictions on region locking, read speed, and other stuff, allowing direct read access on the discs. It's meant for DVD & blu-ray, and also allows ripping of ultra blu-ray which wasn't enabled out of the box, but it may have an impact on CDs as well that I'm not aware of. Thanks! |
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Post by Stratmangler on Dec 23, 2019 0:43:44 GMT
No, EAC will do an excellent job of recovering the error corrected data from the CD. I don't think capturing a CD player's output will be better, probably worse. EAC does not error correct. It does perform multiple reads of data to attempt to ensure its correct.
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Post by MartinT on Dec 23, 2019 6:13:04 GMT
No, EAC will do an excellent job of recovering the error corrected data from the CD. I don't think capturing a CD player's output will be better, probably worse. EAC does not error correct. It does perform multiple reads of data to attempt to ensure its correct.
Strictly, the drive performs CIRC and reports success or not to EAC, then it'll do 'fill' for a tiny error. EAC, as you say, will try again and again to get a good read and can take hours or days to complete. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2019 7:30:33 GMT
There are many bit perfect copying software programs available we have 8 of them do they all sound the same despite being bit perfect ? Lol
I will be looking into this next year no I have the equipment to fully analyse this aspect
If you can use the original master file that was used to make the CD it will sound better if you can preserve the signal chain integrity
Even if you treat the CDs with all 5 or 6 treatments they will improve no problem however it will be not as good as the original cd master file some,y because you have not had to read optical media and go through that particular conversion imho
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