Ripping CD's - Is iTunes good enough?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by colby2415, Oct 5, 2017.

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  1. drobo

    drobo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Thanks
     
  2. AirJordanFan93

    AirJordanFan93 Forum Resident

    Another question with dBpoweramp. I installed their AAC converter and it doesn't go up to 256kbps when using VBR it only goes up to 224kbps. Can I get it to go up to 256VBR or not.
     
  3. thermal123

    thermal123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London UK
    It's probably worth pointing out for anyone else trying this that you need iTunes to be installed for qaac.exe to work.
     
    Time Is On My Side likes this.
  4. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    You only need Apple Application Support (32-bit) and Apple Application Support (64-bit) in order for qaac.exe to work, not a full install of iTunes.
     
  5. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    This is because dBpoweramp uses a different AAC encoder. They use the free Fraunhofer FDK AAC encoder. More information can be found here - Fraunhofer FDK AAC - Wikipedia . The real only difference is that some listening tests have shown the iTunes AAC encoder to be slightly better than the FDK one.

    QAAC (iTunes AAC encoder) can still be used in dBpoweramp. You just need to install the two Apple Application Support programs (it's probably easier to just do a full install of iTunes), and the command line encoder from dBpoweramp's website, and then download qaac.exe. Then you just need to do some set up with the command line encoder in dBpoweramp. More info here - QAAC CLI Encoder errors.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2018
  6. Grateful Ed

    Grateful Ed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    Bumping an old thread for a slightly related question regarding XLD:

    If using Burst mode with "Query AccurateRip database to check integrity" checked and the rips are reported as good, is there any point in checking "verify suspicious sectors" or "test before copy"?
     
  7. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    Nope.
     
    Grateful Ed likes this.
  8. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Since there are a few people re-checking this thread out, might I add the following question?

    If I added my CD's directly into my iTunes library at Apple Lossless and I later burn a CD for myself from that library, will I lose any sound quality between the files and the original downloads?

    Also, I notice that my iTunes library automatically self adjusts the volume of the downloads to a more similar to other downloads, so when I play them back it isn't like one song super loud and the next super quiet. Do I have to turn off "sound adjust" (or whatever they call that) before burning a CD-R or does that completely bypass any of the stuff when burning a CD-R?

    Thanks for any advice
     
  9. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    1. No quality loss, assuming the Apple Lossless rips are themselves error free.

    2. Sound check does not affect the volume level of CD burning, so no need to disable it.
     
    Chris C likes this.
  10. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident

    it shouldn't affect burning but you can go to ITunes/Preferences/Playback Preferences/and turn off Sound Check and it won't equalize sound levels.
     
    Chris C likes this.
  11. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I've always wondered if I turn that "Sound Check" off, will it reload all that it used to know if I turn it back on? I have about 50,000 songs in my iTunes library by the way!
     
  12. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Thanks for that info!
     
  13. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    Protect Your Hearing with This Simple iTunes Feature

    Sound check applies a tag to your files without altering the audio data. Switch it on, it uses the tag to adjust the volume, switch it off, the tag remains but it just ignores it. Some CD ripping software can add the appropriate tag at the time a CD is ripped.
     
    cmcintyre and Chris C like this.
  14. Stromung

    Stromung Well-Known Member

    Location:
    ca
    all these talks.....are you guys burning it into audio cd or.mp3 cd??
     
  15. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    dBpoweramp Reference. Best $38 I ever spent. I found it much easier to use than EAC. For CD burning, I just use the Audio CD Writer program for foobar2000.
     
    Curiosity likes this.
  16. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident

    Not burning at all. I can't remember the last time I burned a CD. Rip them and save the files, play them via either a Raspberry Pi or a Bluesound Node 2i. I save the files as ALAC, though FLAC would work as well, store them on a NAS.
     
  17. Grateful Ed

    Grateful Ed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    Has anyone ever tested whether ripping to AIFF or WAV is faster than ripping to ALAC or FLAC? I would think without the lossless compression it would be faster. I may test this over the weekend.
     
  18. Tony Glass

    Tony Glass Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    I use dbPoweramp and the compression stage takes less than a second and happens while the next track starts ripping, so there wouldn't be much of a difference.
     
    Grateful Ed likes this.
  19. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    And if you look at the screen when it is ripping it displays how it uses the different cores of your CPU, so while one is allocated to ripping, another is encoding, so there may be no difference at all with a multicore processor.
     
  20. Grateful Ed

    Grateful Ed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    Is dbPoweramp that much faster than XLD with all settings being equal? Their website certainly makes it seem that way
     
  21. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    I haven't used the Mac version, sorry. The PC version in burst mode is pretty much as quick as the drive attached to it, though.
     
    Grateful Ed likes this.
  22. Grateful Ed

    Grateful Ed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    Thanks for all your replies!
     
  23. Tony Glass

    Tony Glass Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    I have a MAC and have used XLD and it works very well, but I also use bootcamp to run Windows and will primarily use dbPoweramp on my windows install to do the ripping instead. I just like the interface and the addons much better. Didn't do any formal speed comparisons, but dbPoweramp "feels" slightly faster to me anyway. Other advantage to dbPoweramp is that it can upload accuraterip results, but I don't think XLD had the option.
     
  24. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    This might just be my imagination running away with me, but, seems like all the music in my iTunes Library from AAC to 24/192 sounds better right now than CDs of same music via my OPPO 205. Whether I'm delivering iTunes to my digital prepro via my usb to S/PDIF converter up or down sampling to 24/96, using Airport Express for S/PDIF to prepro at 16/44.1, or sending to prepro from usb DAC up sampling to 24/192, I am sensing sound much like I get from SACD. I know I've updated iTunes on a least 3 occasions within the last 3 months but none of the updates alluded to having anything to do with better sound. Still, I have the impression of sharpened detail, perhaps more dynamics, and presence of low frequencies. At any rate, I'm wondering if others enjoying iTunes have had a similar sensation?
     
  25. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident

    DBPoweramp is available for Mac. No need to use Windows.
     
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