Ripping CD's: Best CD ROM Drive For Ripping Music With AccurateRip

I've compared my rips to the actual CD using only my ears, not data or graphs, and couldn't hear a difference. I can also rip to 24/92 (and noticed a difference) but it takes up too much space on HD. Will do more research and look into some of the software you guys have mentioned. Thanks for the info.

 

Thanks.

 

I don't use cue files myself, so can't answer that one. I rip CDs one folder per disc as individual music files too. I use dBPoweramp with secure ripping enabled. This will make multiple passes of the CD if necessary. Basically, if the first pass of each rip matches with other rips using AccurateRip the rip is assumed to be bit perfect and labelled as AccurateRip verified. If the CD isn't in the AccurateRip database or if there is a mismatch it gets more complicated, but the track is repeatedly ripped at different speeds until a consistent result is obtained.

 

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/spoons-audio-guide-cd-ripping.htm

The above guide is written by the author of dBPoweramp (and developer of AccurateRip) and explains the minutiae of CD ripping far more sensibly than I can.

 

In my experience, the letters don't matter much - they usually designate colour or interface (e.g. USB, SATA, IDE..) - the internal mechanics should be the same.

 

Really, if you were going to do some burning (writing) onto important discs that is one thing, but ripping high speed a large collection, it's best to just get rippin' now and quit fussing around about it.

 

Agreed. The one thing that CD ripping isn't is interesting. I find it seriously tedious. Get it started, get it right, get it backed up and then that's more time for listening to music.

 

I just use a $35 LG external CD/DVD drive from Best Buy. The results will be the same as one that is 2x the price if the rips are verified as accurate by AccurateRip. Just rip to a lossless format and have a redundant backup.

I prefer dBpoweramp. The nice thing about dBpoweramp is that it not only works in Windows, but there is a Mac version too. It will also work in Linux with WINE/Crossover.

 

If you're verifying the rips with AccurateRip and/or the CUETools DB the extracted music is going to be the same no matter what drive you use. However, different drives will make a difference if you need to rip a scratched or damaged CD. And different drives will be demonstrably more reliable and faster if you're doing a big ripping project of thousands of CDs.

I ripped a used CD today that was damaged. Had very obvious pinholes and scratches. Used EAC for ripping. First tried my Asus drive and it was getting lots of errors right from the beginning of the CD. Same with my Pioneer Blu-ray drive. Then tried the old Plextor drive. It sailed on through till it got to the last track where it started getting read errors. It ended up with 542 bad samples as detected by the CUETools plugin for EAC. I then used CUETools to fix those errors and ended up with a "perfect" rip. It took a little bit of work, but I ended up with a verified rip. However I needed three different good drives to use to get a rip that was clean enough for CUETools to be able to fix.

If you're doing a ripping project with thousands of CDs it also pays to get drives that are known to be very good with dBpoweramp. dBpoweramp relies on good proper C2 error correction to do fast rips. You'll want to use drives that other people using dBpoweramp have found to have good C2 error correction and that are fast reliable rippers. When doing thousands of CD the extra speed and reliability will make it worth the effort.

 

I've always had trouble ripping Japanese Victor Co. (JVC) audio CD's. I don't know why that brand in particular. Genre doesn't matter nor does the length or whether the disc has some dirt of a few light marks. I've only found one drive that seems to handle most of these and that's the drive in an old Lenovo Thinkpad. That laptop is defunct but I was recently able to pull that drive out and put it in an external chassis and lo and behold it rips 90% of those JVC discs. Still couldn't handle my Japan-for-US copy of Art Blakey's "Jazz Messengers" CD on Impulse/MCA (catalog no. MCAD-5886) so I will try, as a last resort, the drive in the MacBook we were given though I'll have to figure out how to rip to .WAV on a Mac (I think iTunes can be set up to do this right?).

I would love to find an optical drive that could handle every CD thrown at it. Maybe I will hunt down an old Plextor or Lite-on and stick it in a chassis.

Anyone else have trouble with a certain cadre of discs?

-s1m0n-

 

I've been archiving my collection with a new ASUS DRW-24B1ST. I think it uses Lite-On internals but has been a great workhorse as a CD player and ripper using a properly configured EAC program. The best part is I paid $19 for it on Newegg. That's a lot cheaper than the $600 I paid for a SCSI CD-RW drive back around 1996.

ASUS Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk Black-Newegg.com »

 

The importance of having more than one CD drive on a given computer for ripping cannot be overstated. Even if one of the drives is a CD-Rom only, or one of them is rather old looking, or is old, or one of them never made great burned discs to begin with, they still might be exceptional at ripping. Ripping is a much different task than recording (burning).

I still have not figured out exactly why certain models of my ripping drives worked so well with some discs but not others. Sometimes I tried three different drives in a tower, and had shaky results at best, and took the disc to a forth drive and got much better results. I suspect when some drives got hot after about 10 or 12 rips, then can in some cases perform worse. Other drives do not seem to be effected by long hours at the grindstone.

I actually suggest have three towers with 2-3 drives in each tower, then three monitors, three mice and keyboards. Then of course you have more options when a given disc and drive don't want to dance well together, but the main thing is the process moves along so much more swiftly with the three machines going for a 5 or 6 hour late night session like that. It's not so frustrating to me to have to attempt multiple times on a given disc when you just swiftly finished three other titles while you were working the difficult one.

There are a lot of old computers out there and even more old drives that never got any real mileage on them, perfect low cost ripping machines.

 

I think that was my workhorse for several years. I now have the ASUS Blu-Ray player/burner and that thing rips just as well and even does it faster.

 

I have just built a new PC and was looking for a good DVD drive, and decided on a Pioneer DVR-S21LBK, but have been so disappointed with the rip speeds of about 4X of my CD collection using iTunes that I have now replaced the drive with my 7-year old (bought 2009) Plextor PX-850SA. This old drive rips at almost 30X and I am so glad I have gone back to reinstall it. I will sell my brand new (but slow) Pioneer drive as part of my old PC instead. I definitely would recommend this old Plextor drive.

I have found a Plextor PX-891SAF currently sold online by Amazon.co.uk for £29.16 and by Amazon.com for $34.88, which is twice the price of other internal DVD writers, but if this rips as well as my PX-850SA, then I would definitely recommend spending the extra if you do a decent amount of CD ripping. It rips at almost 8 times the speed of my new Pioneer DVD writer. The official manufacturer page is here: PX-891SAF ».

Anyone perhaps got any experience with the ripping speeds of the PX-891SAF to confirm whether Plextor has kept such great drives?

It is a real shame that specifications for DVD drives do not include the CD audio ripping speed in their specifications as this is where the greatest difference between drives can be noticed.

 

I'd go with something from this list: CD/DVD Drive Accuracy List 2016 ». A 2017 list should come out soon.

 

Go for something of that list is not easy (at least for me); just by example, I can't find where can I buy the first on the list ATAPI iHAS124 W ???
I'm mac user using XLD to rip, I need an enclosure too, any recommendation please, I'm lost.

 

Is it preferable to use a drive that can 'Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out'? When I bought my Plextor PX-708A drive back in '05 or '06, I chose that brand because their drives were able to do that. I never quite understood what the benefits were, but it seemed like a premium feature back then. Unfortunately, the drive suddenly stopped reading discs. Research shows that it's a common issue with the PX-708A and appears to be a firmware bug/glitch. I just don't know how to go about fixing it.

 

@stenway. LiteOn iHAS124 - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA Overview »

 

Given how inexpensive drives are ($20-$30) I suggest you buy one that has good customer feedback (as from Newegg) and if it goes down replace it. I have digitized, well never mind the number, a lot of cd's and am using a drive that must be close to 10 yrs old. Lite-On brand.

 

I've ripped many many discs to flac. I was never able to consider one drive the magic ticket to good rips. Every time I thought I had figured out that a certain drive was the best out of my 9 or 10 drives, it would not get through a disc without errors or what have you. And the oldest drive I had with the slow and rough sounding door / tray motor would work through that problem disc like its no problem.

I have a set of SCSI drives, Plextor rom and a Plextor recorder. I keep them because they have proven track records for ripping discs that other newer drives did not handle so well.

I'm pretty much done with ripping large quantity of discs at this point or so I thought. But now I am eyeing a friend's modern classical / avant-garde collection, thinking better get it all rippled before I retire all of these old vintage drives that have gotten me through a zillion rips.

 

Picked one up last year. Out of three drives I had this one was the only one I was able to successfully rip Gabriel's UP UK promo disc, that puppy had some serious CC...
Good drive, pretty quiet and the price was right
I also recommend using at least two drives.

 

Yep, I have one of those LiteOn's and a new Plextor. Plus this for connection to my laptop: USB to Sata Adapter,Ugreen USB 3.0 to 2.5",3.5" Sata: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics »

 

Thanks for the link Rob, one of those adapters may come in handy

 

I am tempted to look for older Plextor ODDs that were manufactured in Japan, the last of which were the models PX-755A/SA and PX-760A, as I read somewhere. The one piece information I am missing is whether the praise for the ripping qualities is based solely on use with the Plextools software on a Windows computer. I am on a Mac and - interconnects aside, wonder if the ODD hardware alone makes such a difference, or if its features can only be activated with Plextools. I would be using dBpoweramp. I currently have a modern-day LG GH24NSD1, of which there have been variants like GH24NS70, GH24NS90, GH24NS95 appearing in the accuracy list 2016. Also, I heard that the rubber-belts wear out - so that would be my fear when purchasing a used, 12-year old Plextor drive.

 

Ripping CDs to FLAC with bit-perfect accuracy is not a task which requires a special or high quality rom drive. Ideally having two or more drives to select from is more advantages than only one drive being that discs are so finicky and subject to varring pressing quality or in the case of CD-R, burned quality or accuracy.

Recording onto CD-R is a different story. But for ripping I would just get a pioneer and an LG or equivalent and get on with it.