Hi James,
Will Bryston think about producing a CD ripper of sorts which will ensure top quality CD rips? So far, I am ripping my CDs using a laptop to a portable hard disk.
The following extract is from NAIM AUDIO's white paper on Sound Rip Technology and it talks about the importance of ripping process. If this is true then, then quality of the rip can already be compromised before it reaches an audiophile media player like the Bryston BDP-1. Anyway, I thought this will be an interesting read for all. I hope it's ok to "cut and paste" contents from other makers here.
2. CD Ripping
The audio playback out of a hard disc server is dependent on the quality of the system that extracted the audio from the CD. Although CD ripping is not a new concept, to extract the audio so it is identical to the content of the CD is quite a challenge.
The key issues are:
2.1 Ensuring audio is extracted bit perfect, with ability to detect when a track is unreadable due to physical damage.
Naim uses a ‘secure’ sync locked ripping system that uses the specialist CD mechanisms error detection system, cache free hardware and a multi-read strategy. This ensures we get the audio data from CD to hard disc exactly the same as the original CD master made in the studio. Most PC based systems use ‘burst mode’ extraction, which may be quick (2-3mins per CD), but the quality of the resultant audio files can be less than desirable.
2.2 The lead in (the gap before the track) and lead out (the gap after the track) is captured for accurate ‘gapless’ playback of the ripped CD.
The lead-in and lead-out times are accurately measured and this gap is recorded onto the start and end of each audio file on the hard drive. The audio replay engine plays the files back the gaps (or no gaps) between each track identically to the original CD. Most servers do not capture this correctly and typically add a fixed gap between tracks, which on some recordings ruins the flow of the music on the album.
2.3 High compatibility with copy protected CD’s, which are now commonplace in the market.
Naim uses custom firmware in the audio mechanism that allows the music server to copy the majority of copy protected and non-standard CD’s.
Streaming Media Players that require a PC to rip CD’s will have varying compatibility issues dependent on the CD/DVD drive installed in the machine.
2.4 Exact capture of start and end of tracks.
Some PC CD/DVD ROM drives can miss the start and end of tracks by a few samples, due to the nature of the audio CD format. The CD ripping engine and CD mechanism used in the Naim range of servers ensure the start and ends are captured perfectly, so gapless tracks on an album are played as the artist intended.
2.5 High compatibility of reading discs that are old and have accumulated small scratches and dirt. Although we all treasure our music collection, the wear and tear of day to day use accumulates up over the years. The Naim ripping engine has a very high tolerance to scratched, dirty and out of specification discs. This ensures the minimum of fuss when ripping your CD collection to hard drive.
What do you think?
