Good grief! iTunes really is RUBBISH for playback.

[roob]

I have spent the past week ripping my entire cd collection to AIFF with XLD, all went well, tagged correctly and artwork found in the database. I did have a problem with a few discs though where ripping ground to a halt part way through the disc, I abandoned those rips and tried the discs with iTunes which ripped the entire disc with no problems.
My take is that error checking is more stringent with XLD which results in less than perfect discs not ripping.

[sq225917]

Rob, it could just be stupid, not stringent. Check the rips against a known good database for that file to see if Itunes did it right or not. But honestly, do you think you can hear a few samples of guesswork ? ;-)

[sq225917]

Frank, the cd you struggled with just has copy control protection on it.

[dave2010]

Dave, have you considered going with an airport express and streaming iTunes to your dac? If set up correctly I beleive it's bit perfect. What input does the SB use on the Caiman? The AE would use toslink.

I'm on iTunes 10.5 and I haven't noticed any bad rips although I use XLD so as long as I've got an AccurateRip report saying its good, then it's good. Perhaps those discs which didn't initially rip well were done towards the end of za ripping session and the drive had got hot. Maybe that might affect the drive's capabilities, I don't know. XLD also uses drive offset settings, some technical attribute of a drive that can affect rips.

10.5.n where n<2, is known to be bad on some CDs. The latest update (n=2) fixes the problems for at least some of the discs. I doubt that the problems I experienced had anything to do with my drive or my iMac, as i got repeatable results over several similar machines, and also there were reports on other forums of problems. One of the reasons given for the latest version is to attend to audio problems with some discs. I'd recommend anyone using 10.5.0 or 1 to upgrade. Anyone one using earlier versions may wish to stick, but avoid early versions of 10.5 at all costs.

I'll come back to the Airport Express suggestion later.

[dave2010]

Hmmmm, wanna get rid of that LaCie drive?

So, it's not the drive as you've used different drives. I assume you deleted the rip some time ago as you can't remember what it was. If you could remember which disc it was and try it again with different software then that would rule out iTunes, or not. For the record, I've never had a disc do that. I've had discs not rip for various reasons but I've never had one "kind of" rip.

Note: I have noted recently that some tracks have not ripped in XLD. iTunes succeeded in ripping them so it is a bit of a quandary this ripping malarkey! When ripping in iTunes I use the error checking. Perhaps iTunes error checking is superior to XLD's?

Lee

I could perhaps use a Mac with 10.5.0 or 1 installed to rip a problem CD, and then send you a fraction of one track just to prove that the problems mentioned are real and repeatable. Believe me, you wouldn't like it, but you might just be able to hear the music under the noise. I'm pretty sure that Frank/f1eng had a disk which showed that problem. It should be OK with 10.5.2.

I always use the error checking mode in iTunes now.

[sq225917]

Shall I bother saying it again, or not.

The CD has copy protection on it. The copy protection triggers the DRM in Itunes and stops you from getting a clean rip. Use something else for that particular disk. Apple may have removed this feature in current releases given the impending change in UK law regarding ripping for self use.

[f1eng]

Hmmmm, wanna get rid of that LaCie drive?

So, it's not the drive as you've used different drives. I assume you deleted the rip some time ago as you can't remember what it was. If you could remember which disc it was and try it again with different software then that would rule out iTunes, or not. For the record, I've never had a disc do that. I've had discs not rip for various reasons but I've never had one "kind of" rip.

Note: I have noted recently that some tracks have not ripped in XLD. iTunes succeeded in ripping them so it is a bit of a quandary this ripping malarkey! When ripping in iTunes I use the error checking. Perhaps iTunes error checking is superior to XLD's?

Hi Lee, the firewire CD reader is a keeper...
I did re-rip 1 track of the disc with videoconverterultimate, which was slow but got a rip. Did somebody mention something about iTunes now not reading DRM protected discs, even for the owner?
That would be annoying to me since I really disapprove of stealing music so as a matter of principle I don't, including -not- ripping a CD then selling it.
Sad sod, aren't I?

[f1eng]

Shall I bother saying it again, or not.

The CD has copy protection on it. The copy protection triggers the DRM in Itunes and stops you from getting a clean rip. Use something else for that particular disk. Apple may have removed this feature in current releases given the impending change in UK law regarding ripping for self use.

I have never heard of this before. I had ripped this disc without problem years ago to my main office machine using whatever version of iTunes was extant at that time.
Is this "not reading a copy protected disc" you refer to here a recent addition to iTunes?

[dave2010]

Frank, the cd you struggled with just has copy control protection on it.

I don't see how you can be so sure, unless you have more information than I have. When I last looked, Frank didn't even seem to remember which CD it was. I certainly have no knowledge of what the CD was.

It is possible that some CDs have DRM, and that could be a source of problems. It's certainly the case that some of the CDs I've had problems with had pre-emphasis. There doesn't have to be a single cause, but right now it seems fairly certain that discs with pre-emphasis caused problems with iTunes 10.5.n (n<2). They may or may not also have DRM.

[f1eng]

Aha, I have just been reminded which disc it was, it was still next to the CD transport since I couldn't rip it to the computer.
It was the Harmonia Mundi Faure Requiem conducted by Herreweghe. It ripped normally just now using iTunes 10.5.2
It does have a box printed on the disc with SACEM and SDRM printed in it, perhaps there is some sort of DRM, it also has SACD and SGDL printed vertically and it certainly what is known as SACD nowadays, being a 1988 disc...
Frank