Ripping CD's without an internal drive

If you are playing audio live, maybe. If you are ripping, probably not, unless your computer has a particularly awful USB implementation that doesn't provide enough juice.

 

I think it probably still qualifies as a “gamer” case - and a massive one at that - but I just completed a build in the Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 rev 2. One of very few new cases I found that has 2 optical drive bays up front. Excellent build quality. Wouldn’t want any other case after building in this one - just better have the room for it! Installed an LG WH16NS60 (flashed to FW 1.0) and Pioneer BDR-212UBK

 

The only thing for me is that I hate front panel doors. I once had one. The door didn't fall off, but it was a real hassle.

 

True, that’s a new experience for me, never had to deal with one before… doesn’t seem like the end of the world though, at least not yet anyway!
I’d take a front panel door over being relegated to only USB connections for the drives, and it’s not exactly pick of the litter anymore when it comes to cases if you want a 5.25” bay or two. If I’m doing another build in 5-10 years I have to wonder if there’ll be cases on the market with drive bays up front at all

 

You can look for an external laptop for that $30 (or also free from a friend). CD-ROM drives and ripping to MP3 are technology 25 years old, and by the time slimline DVD players were included, decent-quality digital audio extraction wasn't even a question. (although to be practical, a WiFi Core 2 from 2007+)

A compatible drives list - from 2001, and the 40x Plextor there will outperform anything made today.
An old CD-only drive also doesn't have the slow access time of multiple lasers (including burning lasers) and the slow startup of trying to figure out what type of disc is in there.

 

The Asus brand can be good ripping drives. My primary ripping drive is an Asus. But it's a full size drive, not a slim laptop style drive. I've had that drive for about 10 years and it has probably ripped a couple thousands discs. Still going strong. Rips fast and accurately.

I use full size drives for ripping. Full size drives last longer than slim drives. The PlexWriter drive in this picture is over 20 years old and still working.

 

Yes, I have a full size LG external CD/DVD drive (with AC power) and it's still working after 10 years or more. It's just less convenient with its size, weight and needing a plug, so I only use it when the other drive fails or can't get a good rip.

EG.

 

Another shout out for Asus burners. I have two of 'em and they are flawless.

 

I keep the Plextor in minty Baldwin condition for only the problematic CDs

 

I no longer use the old PlexWriter for regular ripping. I don't want to wear it out. It gets used when my other drives won't rip a disc or for when a CD has a hidden track in the pre-gap before track one (HTOA). The old Plextor drive is my drive that is able to rip HTOA audio. My other drives will detect HTOA, but won't rip the audio. So I still need that old Plextor drive for the occasional CD with a HTOA hidden track.

I have had to do some maintenance on the old Plextor to keep it going. Haven't had to replace a belt or laser or anything difficult. But have had to clean out dust that got into the center spindle bushing. The center spindle spins on a bushing. Dust built up under the bushing. CDs were vibrating and making too much noise when they spun up and tried to rip at high speed. Cleaning out the accumulated dust and gunk under the bushing fixed that problem. That's the only repair style maintenance I've done to it. I hope it keeps going. I like having it and don't want to have to search around for another drive that handles HTOA.

 

Indeed I suspected you didn't want to wear it out Several years ago the best drives summary came up on the dbpoweramp forums and people noticed Plextors were no longer in the top spots for error free ripping and Spoon said it was because people were not using them for everyday ripping.

I have no idea if genuine Plextor made Plextor drives have come down in price, when CD was the main format these commanded a decent premium on the second hand market.

 

ASUS were not drive manufacturers though - they use other's drives. Just as Plextor since 2005. The drives to look for are Philips-LiteOn (aka PLDS), later just Lite-On. 2008-2012 DVD burners.

I just ran all of my SATA optical drives through an excruciating trial, after discovering a Stone Temple Pilots where the last track had massive errors. The winner: 2008 no-logo Lite-On DH-16A6S, which is built on the retail Lite-on iHAS120 platform (and the varied drives can even be cross-flashed to other models in that line, like to a Plextor PX-806SA.)

A near tie was 2010 DH-16ABS(B), aka ASUS DRW-24B1ST, or Dell J7X2N, which is built on the Lite-On PLD-DH-24ABL(B) platform, again with tons of different models (sometimes extra hardware, such as the lightscribe): https://fccid.io/PLD-DH-24ABL

SATA
iHAS124 = baseline model
iHAS224 = 124 + LightScribe
iHAS324 = 124 + SmartErase
iHAS424 = 124 + LightScribe + SmartErase (or = 224 + SmartErase)
iHAS524 = 124 + LabelTag + SmartErase
iHAS624 = 124 + LabelTag + LightScribe (or = SmartErase (= SmartErase) LightScribe)

Why a clear winner?
1. Lite-Ons support C1/C2 error reading. (The only quirk is that the "ScanDisc" page of Nero DiscSpeed (archive org download link) doesn't show C1, only "Disc Quality" page.)
2. Block-level error rates on another iffy disc are rock-solid even at a full 48X, reading a 67 minute disc error-free in 136 seconds.



(sad is all the forums that have disappeared with CD and DVD junkies)

 

The one I currently have installed is the Asus DRW-24B1ST j.

 

Here is the enclosure I use. It uses its own power source. With this thing, you can use whatever full size SATA optical drive you want. Like I said before the drives themselves are cheap usually - around $20. Enclosure is $40 or so usually.

Vantec NexStar DX

 

unfortunately external drives connected to a computer via usb doesn't sound as good as internal drives. I checked it with Plextor (made in Japan), Yamaha F1, Benq. I don't remember the model numbers but they were among the best at their time. of course usb interface plays a major role but there's something not quite right with usb and sound quality. the best drive I've used is Mahsishuta UJ898 (2010 macbook pro internal drive). I tested it against other external drives mentioned above including mediocre Apple superdrive and it always bested in terms of SQ. both in XLD and EAC. with correct offset numbers and MAME gold CDR I manage to make a perfect XRCD copy. I've never before heard a CDR that sounds like original and I heard a lot.

 

You are not alone in saying this. However, there is a little $25 device that should fix the USB audio issue. I bookmarked the item but I unfortunately accidentally deleted it anyway.

 

A bit perfect copy is a bit perfect copy even if made over USB. The end.

 

I purchased an IHAS624 about a year ago for possible inclusion in my new PC rig (had to import it from overseas too, further complicating things) and though it seems to be a very well built fully featured drive from the “late dvd” era, it did not measure up to the LG or pioneer BD drives when it came to reading CDs. It routinely choked up on a couple of discs that the other drives sailed through without issue. I wanted it to be good!

 

The problem is - you might want it to choke in EAC on a bad disc instead of sailing right through errors, choke like this drive does:

(I noted this Optiarc drive (that came with my workstation) just happened to be a good ripping drive, with every error-analysis feature available. It may have just become dusty inside...reading 70% higher C1 rate at 20x and 100% high at max 40x on the same disc in the previous post)

The "best" at reading the bad disc, with only "read test" available - a drive that wouldn't rip in DiscSpeed faster than 8x, and needing registry editing to take it off the DiscSpeed internal C1 blocklist. Since I still haven't gotten a matching CRC off this disc, we don't know if this is good rip, or still bad because of no error reporting:

 

no, not exactly. cause bits aren't just bits of ones and zeros. otherwise there wouldn't be any difference between usb cables, ethernet cables, coaxial cables etc. CDR quality also makes a big difference.
of course I compared only bit perfect copies. still there is a significant difference between drives even if everything is the same.

 

We are talking about ripping on this thread, not anything else. If you are making an extraordinary claim about bit perfect ripping on a USB optical drive, provide facts and proof. The burden is on the person making an extraordinary claim, which would be you.

My guess is you have no proof. Unfortunately that is common in the audiophile world where a subset of people believe all sorts of wacky things that are not based on facts, e.g. those CD "stoplight" pens which were a fad for awhile.

 

What?

 

The discs I referenced can probably be considered “trouble discs” and are fringe cases compared to most CDs however they *are* able to be read error free; which of course is the real goal. I figured, get a drive that can get the job done and it’ll have less of a problem with any other possible trouble discs going forward.

One of these discs I’ve used to test drives is the 1983 release “The Digital Domain” on Elektra, the West German target CD with early matrix/mirror band. Track 19 on this disc seems to be a challenge - many drives will choke up and error out, never producing a consistent CRC, some will consistently read it just fine and match up to ARDB/CTDB. Not sure if it actually means anything for real world general usage, but that’s been my personal benchmark for selecting a “daily driver” ODD. If it couldn’t read this disc, I considered it a fail.

Similar behavior has been exhibited on the Japanese CD mentioned in these 2 write-ups…


https://john-millikin.com//why-i-ripped-the-same-cd-300-times

https://john-millikin.com//error-beneath-the-wavs


I ended up importing a copy of that CD and used that in my testing too. I checked what felt like endless drives going back to some more than 20 years old… in the end only the LG and Pioneer were able to read them both error-free.

 

tell it to people who spend a lot of money on LPS of ethernet switch. if you don't hear a difference or choose to believe all is snake oil it's ok. but I believe everything makes a difference. I only shared my experience on drives for Cd ripping.

 

"Hey, you people that spend a lot of money on an audiophile Ethernet switch - how does it feel to be an absolute rube and sucker?" Good enough?

The exact same bits do not still contain any subtle nuance of the fine timbre and pace of the hardware that produced them.