Best ripper for CD's

[GearSlave]

I have alway been of the opinion (from what I have read) that a copied CD sounds better than an original one. Some of the logic makes sense to me, but I cannot speak from experience.

So I was wondering, what do you guys think is the best CD ripping (such a bad word) software? I understand there are some versions that do repeated reads (good) and then some that does error correction (not good).

I've always just used Nero's function to rip to .wav and have now come across Audiograbber. What do you guys think/use?

Your help would be appreciated!

Cheers

Gert

[skinnyfat]

I've always been a fan of - foobar    FLAC is kewl

[kay]

I've used CDex, EAC, Windows Media Player - all much of a muchness. Use FLAC to compress your rips without any loss of quality or lame (WinLame) to make VBR MP3's.

[GearSlave]

Thanks guys,

I do not want to rip to mp3, only to wav. What is important is that it should be the best rip possible, without any jitter etc. I don't know enough about the subject, so I dunno if it's voodoo or not.

Anyway, I'll be looking around a bit more

Cheers

[kay]

EAC is probably your best bet with regards to error correction. And jitter is not an issue with buffered connections such as ATA

[GearSlave]

AHA! This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanx Kay!!!    

[Family_Dog]

I bought a Bear box set of Billy Vaughn* (WHO???) CDs from amazon.com and one of the CDs had a scratch on it caused by one of the tiny plastic fingers supposedly holding the CD in its jewel box having broken off and going where it shouldn't have.

Amazon.com replaced the set, but Murphy was having a field day with me. Exactly the same CD in the replacement box suffered from exactly the same fate. The effect was noticeable on playback through a reasonably good CD player, Acurus**... (WHAT???). But by burning a new CD with EAC*** (WHAT???) , I was able to produce a good copy completely unblemished.


*Billy Vaughn Orchestra = lekker twin sax sound. Popular Band Leader of the 50s**** (WHEN???). 

** Good equipment, but they went bust  '( 

*** Exact Audio Copy. Excellent free CD ripping program from Andre Wiethoff. Check out his web page at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ 

**** Sommer the other day, man.... Get a life!   


-F_D :

[Hi-Phibian]

Agree with EAC. I have twin tray CDR machine and no matter what discs I used I could always hear a difference and prefered the original.

I tried a few programs and listened to numerous disks made by others. A computer tech friend even fitted 3 different CDR units in to his PC and recorded the same stuff thrice. All different sound on all 3....

Then I tried EAC and I struggle to decide which disc is better, copied or original. I left it there and EAC is what I use now.

[kay]

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but I just don't buy that Care to describe what your test protocol was?

[Hi-Phibian]

I just don't buy that 

No need EAC is free.
Nero is good enough for many.

[skinnyfat]

Didn't pay a cent for my Nero 7