[djdube525]

I recently replaced our home PC with a mac mini. Previously, I had used EAC + AccurateRip to rip CDs to FLAC or higher quality mp3s.

I've seen a few threads recommending dbpoweramp and XLD... I was wondering if there's anything else I should be looking at. Any recommendations? Any folks with experience with either package, and can talk about the pros/cons? Cost of XLD is appealing, but don't mind paying for dbpoweramp if it's significantly better in terms of file tagging, retrieving cover art, etc. In the past, I always seemed to be tweaking/fixing what EAC would pull in from freedb, so time savings would be worth it to pay for convenience.

It looks like to get that though with dbpoweramp, I would need to add PerfectTunes as well. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance!

[Vincent Kars]

dBpoweramp extract information from AMG, SonataDB, Music Brains and FreeDB.
You can inspect the tags and choose the one you prefer before you start to rip.
It does so at rip time, you can't use it to correct tags after the CD is ripped.
That is what PerfectTunes does.

[funkmonkey]

I’ve been using “Rip” for years, no complaints. And it’s free.

[audioengr]

For Mac, it's XLD:

http://tmkk.pv.land.to/xld/index_e.html

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

[glynnw]

Not sure if it is the same for MACs, but I use JRiver to correct tags.

[Yomaha]

Revisiting this as I have a Japanese blackface CD version of 'The Wall' headed my way.  I've seen a handful of votes around the web for dbPoweramp.  Just curious if that and XLD are the two main options in the ripping space. 

[Yomaha]

Call me old fashioned (or uninformed) but I ripped this version of the Wall by dragging and dropping the files onto my SSD from the CD files in Finder. It brought them over as AIFFs.

In comparing the Japanese blackface to whatever version is on Tidal, the CD is much more laid back. Drums and low end not as prominent as the Tidal version. Much lower too as I have to bring my volume knob up to almost 11 o’clock versus normal 9 o’clock position.

Does a program like DBpoweramp improve the sound quality of the rip versus how I did it?  Would I have been better off ripping in iTunes?

I haven’t spent much time with it, but initially I find the Tidal version much more engaging. It is much louder in the low end and transients.

[Vincent Kars]

I'm not very familiar with Tidal but I believe by default they have volume normalization / replay gain on.
Might explain the difference.

Same masters?

You might try ripping in iTunes or dBpoweramp but most of the time different ripping programs yield the same result.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/OSX/Ripping.htm

[Tyson]

Call me old fashioned (or uninformed) but I ripped this version of the Wall by dragging and dropping the files onto my SSD from the CD files in Finder. It brought them over as AIFFs.

In comparing the Japanese blackface to whatever version is on Tidal, the CD is much more laid back. Drums and low end not as prominent as the Tidal version. Much lower too as I have to bring my volume knob up to almost 11 o’clock versus normal 9 o’clock position.

Does a program like DBpoweramp improve the sound quality of the rip versus how I did it?  Would I have been better off ripping in iTunes?

I haven’t spent much time with it, but initially I find the Tidal version much more engaging. It is much louder in the low end and transients.

Needing to turn the volume up is usually a sign of decent dynamic range - ie, a lack of compression.