James,
Yet there are some who use the BDP (a great product that I highly endorse), and still claim to hear diffs between file types. With all else constant (cables, external drives, etc).
What gives?
cheers
Hi mate!
Like I said, providing (and only if) everything is fine with the encoder and decoder, there cannot be any differences. It is simply not possible because the bit checksum must be identical even if bit allocation is different. It is either this or the encoding process is not truly lossless. There is no third.
The bigger problem I see here is that threads like these are full of people mentioning type of ripping software and encoder they're using when I know for a fact they're flawed. As much as it grieves me to say it, there are far less ripping engines that do work than there are those that don't work. I always recommend Exact Audio Copy (EAC) in Secure Mode which is a bit complicated to set up but ultimately very worthwhile. Depending on condition of the CD and CD-ROM's capabilities, ripping a single disc may take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half. If you want to rip your CDs properly, this is what it takes.
I've even seen people comparing two rips of the same CD claiming there is a difference when in fact one of the two was ripped with the channels reversed! No doubt, the CD-ROM used was to blame since some of the drives based on LG platform have this particular "feature".
Perhaps that an extreme example but is speaks volumes about the necessary preparation these people have taken (or rather, didn't take) before they started comparing.
The point is, people will compare anything not knowing what they're really doing or not even having enough patience to do a bit of reading before they start doing it.
Some ripping engines and encoders have the ability to change the overall SPL of the rip not to mention all sorts of filtering that can be applied, and usually is applied by default unless you make a change in the settings menu. Yet, nobody is talking about that, only that they can "hear a difference".
I have a few discs ripped in WAV that sound terrible, simply terrible. The original disc from which they were ripped sounds much better. I also have a number of files ripped to 320kbps MP3 that sound very close to the original CD and generally, much better than the improperly-ripped WAV files.
There are some really very expensive HDD/network players out there. Naim in particular makes a couple of them and these include CD rippers. Naim claims their engine is better than anything else on the market (don't they all?) but that's not really true. It can only be as good as something like EAC, not better, because EAC already incorporates everything. Naim has success with these devices PRECISELY because it is easier to spend money than to spend time! Of course Naim is better! It's better than most of the stuff out there. It just isn't better than something good, something that requires a bit of effort.
Wow, this has somehow turned into a long post!
Cheers!
Antun
