Ben Duncan mains conditioner
2022 MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro 10/16/16/16
Samsung QE75Q90T 75" QLED TV
XMOS DSD Async USB to Coax converter
RME Audio ADI-2 FS (AK4493) DAC
Chord Clearway XLR interconnects
Audioquest Crimson USB interconnect
QED Quartz Reference optical interconnect
Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers
Atacama SE24 stands
I'll definitely have a look at xACT.
Ben Duncan mains conditioner
2022 MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro 10/16/16/16
Samsung QE75Q90T 75" QLED TV
XMOS DSD Async USB to Coax converter
RME Audio ADI-2 FS (AK4493) DAC
Chord Clearway XLR interconnects
Audioquest Crimson USB interconnect
QED Quartz Reference optical interconnect
Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers
Atacama SE24 stands
To be honest, I've never checked. The ripper gets the track info from the internet - freedb I think, but only extracts to WAV and I'm not sure if it writes metatags to the WAV header (I don't think so) - it does use them to name the files with tracks number and name, and writes the other details to the log...
Well, it only takes a few minutes to add the details in manually if need be.
Ben Duncan mains conditioner
2022 MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro 10/16/16/16
Samsung QE75Q90T 75" QLED TV
XMOS DSD Async USB to Coax converter
RME Audio ADI-2 FS (AK4493) DAC
Chord Clearway XLR interconnects
Audioquest Crimson USB interconnect
QED Quartz Reference optical interconnect
Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers
Atacama SE24 stands
There's another app called Max which some of you may like which also uses CDParanoia, the same Unix library as xACT. Max may handle metadata conversion better. I personally felt xACT was more straightforward so never really tried Max much, but you may like it. It has plenty of ripping options to play with, from simple burst ripping to secure modes and comparison retries (effectively ripping multiple times and comparing the results). Max is made by the same people as are behind Cog, the best lossless audio player for the Mac. I personally use iTunes for AAC playback and Cog for FLAC and Shorten.
Last edited by Beechwoods; 05-06-2008 at 18:29.
I'll have a look into Cog as well then.
Ben Duncan mains conditioner
2022 MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro 10/16/16/16
Samsung QE75Q90T 75" QLED TV
XMOS DSD Async USB to Coax converter
RME Audio ADI-2 FS (AK4493) DAC
Chord Clearway XLR interconnects
Audioquest Crimson USB interconnect
QED Quartz Reference optical interconnect
Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers
Atacama SE24 stands
Well, iTunes has now been retired as I downloaded Cog.
Ben Duncan mains conditioner
2022 MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro 10/16/16/16
Samsung QE75Q90T 75" QLED TV
XMOS DSD Async USB to Coax converter
RME Audio ADI-2 FS (AK4493) DAC
Chord Clearway XLR interconnects
Audioquest Crimson USB interconnect
QED Quartz Reference optical interconnect
Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers
Atacama SE24 stands
I tried MAX last night and was also impressed with the results. I'm still a little unsure about the 'correct' ripping setup to use, but anything that takes that long must be good!
Not ready to give up my GUI just yet, but I will try COG as well. First priority is to get comfortable with an archiving scheme so I can start getting rid of my CDs!
Cog is definitely worth a go.
Ben Duncan mains conditioner
2022 MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro 10/16/16/16
Samsung QE75Q90T 75" QLED TV
XMOS DSD Async USB to Coax converter
RME Audio ADI-2 FS (AK4493) DAC
Chord Clearway XLR interconnects
Audioquest Crimson USB interconnect
QED Quartz Reference optical interconnect
Edifier S3000 Pro active speakers
Atacama SE24 stands
So I mucked about with this every free moment this weekend, and I actually came to a conclusion. (Shocking, in itself).
While (to my understanding,) the method I chose does not represent my stated goal of a bit-perfect (aka "secure rip" aka "bit transparancy") rip of the original CD, it's close, and it just plain sounded the best. So this is what I am using for the forseeable future:
CD Ripping in SBooth's MAX:
Format:
AIFF (Linear PCM) - 32bit big endian signed integer
I tried every flavor of AIFF available through MAX - they all were better than the best results I could manage importing CDs directly through iTunes as uncompressed AIFF or WAV files.
I settled on the 32bit sampling, as I found notable improvements in both detail and body. Bass notes were more in tune, and there was a blacker background.
This was not the result I set out to find, but I chose it because the results seemed to be better all around, and not 'offsetting' (E.G. tests in iTunes would result in one format improving clarity, but the other improving body).
I also found COG to be a better sounding playback application than iTunes, but because of iTunes better GUI and Frontrow integration, they will continue to co-exist peacefully on my machine for the time-being.
PS:
I am connecting my mac mini with autdioquest optical cable to a Linn 5103 serving as DAC and preamp. The Mac Audio MIDI output settings are at 48KHz.
Last edited by barnz; 09-06-2008 at 17:03.