[pm314]

Between WMP and Itunes? Hm EAC uses every feature and beyond... I doubt that Itunes does as good of a job.  ...

Actually I meant between iTunes on a PC vs. Mac.  The prior post said that people using iTunes for ripping on a PC were getting bad results compared with using it on a Mac.  I cant really speak to EAC because I haven't tried it yet, but I suppose its about time to do a small test...

[Grumpy_Git]

can anyone confirm that iTunes does multiple readings of a disc as it rips to make sure the read is bit perfect.

After all there is a huge difference between having a lossless rip of a bit perfect copy and a lossless rip of a hugely error corrected track (just ask my temporary lossless WMA music)

cheers

Nick.

[konut]

I have been looking and asking about OSX encoders for FLAC for about 6 months hoping to find an app that does what EAC does. My last hope was Roxio Toast Titanium 7. I posted a question on their forum today and got this disappointing response.


 " If your drive caches audio (as the vast majority of modern drives do) then there is currently no native OS X application that can produce secure rips in the same way that EAC can. If you're lucky enough to have a drive that does not cache audio then cdparanoia, cdda2wav with lib paranoia or any of their GUI's (xACT and Max for example) can produce secure, error-corrected rips.

 Toast's audio extraction is no better or worse than any burst ripper's but if it could be adapted to a form that could disable caching and allow for proper error correction it would be a MAJOR selling point.

 Until that happy day, EAC under Virtual PC is the only 100% secure route."

We're doomed!
 

[jon_010101]

Until that happy day, EAC under Virtual PC is the only 100% secure route.

Can't you just copy the raw .aiff files off your CD onto your harddrive and then compress them with whatever lossless encoder you choose?  That's guaranteed to preserve the data, and doesn't take much time to do.

[PhilNYC]

Toast's audio extraction is no better or worse than any burst ripper's but if it could be adapted to a form that could disable caching and allow for proper error correction it would be a MAJOR selling point.

Isn't there a way to flush the cache?

[Robert57]

I've seen a few cryptic references to xACT ripping software for Mac OSX, which supposedly uses CD Paranoia error correction for excellent bit- perfect rip quality-- about the same as EAC. I would be very interested to hear if anyone has tried this on Mac OS X. Are there any apparent advantages in using this over iTunes (with error correction)? I assume it would not rip directly to an Apple Lossless format. The FLAC site lists xACT as a recommended rip software.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

[nathanm]

Xact is for the l33t type of person.  Ain't no training wheels on that thing, just eight screens of cryptic options and no clue if they are related to each other or not.  I think it's for people who normally never leave the Terminal but maybe can't type fast enough cause they're eating chips with their left hand.

[Watson]

If anyone can't figure it out, I've posted instructions before on how to use xAct.

If people still can't figure xAct out, there is a new tool for OS X that is much easier to use called Max:
http://sbooth.org/Max/
Max will rip directly to ALAC or FLAC using EAC-style paranoia correction.

[JDUBS]

Take the guesswork out of setting up EAC properly:

http://www.carltonbale.com/projects/cd_audio_extraction/

Also, a good cd drive is important.  I use an external Plextor Premium CD-RW with very good results.

-Jim

Well depending on your CD drive you might want to or not want to use all of those features.

I can tell you right now on my computer it would take forever to rip with those setting. It would of taken forever on my desktop where I used a Nec 3500a..... Who has an entire day to devote to maybe three extractions tops?

I would try setting it up and see if it really does take your computer a long time.  My computer is nothing special (gig of ram and 3ghz p4) and with these exact settings, it takes no more than 7-10 minutes per rip.  Of course that's with the Plextor Premium drive.  But then again, I tried this EAC setup with an NEC 3520 and got similar results (in speed anyway).  I can walk anyone through this guide if they have problems.

Just let me know and I would be happy to help out.

-Jim

[8thnerve]

Until that happy day, EAC under Virtual PC is the only 100% secure route.

Can't you just copy the raw .aiff files off your CD onto your harddrive and then compress them with whatever lossless encoder you choose?  That's guaranteed to preserve the data, and doesn't take much time to do.

That won't give you an error corrected rip.  It's important to remember that an audio CD and a CD-ROM are encoded very differently.

Does iTunes on a mac play FLAC files?

I would consider ripping and storing music files on a PC server in a different location and using a Mac over Wi-Fi to connect to the PC server's music library.  Then you can use iTunes and a good USB DAC to connect to your system, and since you won't be using much of the Mac's hard drive, it shouldn't have to spin up too much...  Any thoughts?

[jon_010101]

That won't give you an error corrected rip.  It's important to remember that an audio CD and a CD-ROM are encoded very differently.

Thanks, I just read-up and see now that it just rips it as iTunes would with no special treatment.