Best way to back up audio CDs?

[admin_exported]

Just a simle short question to backup my music collection on cds....

Are music CDs better quality when ripped to WAVE with EAC, and then burnt with say iTunes to cd (after converting to lossless for itunes)...

OR:

Using NERO to create an image of the CD to harddrive, then burning that image to CD.

The 2nd is faster, but I like to have files on computer anyway. Am after best CD quality. Iv also heard that a CDr can sound better then the original due to limitations in creating copys from the "master cd"?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I use Media Player in WAV to copy the CD to the hard-drive then burn the CD-R from there. I find the WAV copy, while not quite as good as the original is not far off it, and sounds fine when played back in the car.

I tried a straight copy from one drive to the next but, while it is quicker, the sound wasn't great.

 

[Anonymous]

Well I know EAC is quite a bit better then Media Player. I thought a straight copy from one drive (or harddrive) to cd would be nearly as good?

 

[Anonymous]

" Just a simle short question to backup my music collection on cds....

Are
music CDs better quality when ripped to WAVE with EAC, and then burnt
with say iTunes to cd (after converting to lossless for itunes)...

OR:

Using NERO to create an image of the CD to harddrive, then burning that image to CD."

In my experience this works best:

Use calibration and rip WAVE with eac to store on the computer's harddrive. Burn them to cd with EAC.

(I wouldn't burn them with Itunes, because it seems to be a little bit unstable lately; skipping songs, glitches etc. No Use burning them with WMP either)

CD-rs do sound different to me. Most natural was MAM-e pro gold. Not so good anymore, according to multiple forums.Try Taiyo Yuden.

"Iv also heard that a CDr can sound better then the
original due to limitations in creating copys from the "master cd"?

Once copied a cd from dido to mam-e pro gold; the copy was indeed more detailed and open sounding. Never experienced it with any other cd-r though.

 

[Anonymous]

To clarify my previous message, Taiyo yuden is a manufacturer not a brand name. See cdfreaks for more info.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Solomon1"]
" Just a simle short question to backup my music collection on cds....

Are
music CDs better quality when ripped to WAVE with EAC, and then burnt
with say iTunes to cd (after converting to lossless for itunes)...

OR:

Using NERO to create an image of the CD to harddrive, then burning that image to CD."

In my experience this works best:

Use calibration and rip WAVE with eac to store on the computer's harddrive. Burn them to cd with EAC.

(I wouldn't burn them with Itunes, because it seems to be a little bit unstable lately; skipping songs, glitches etc. No Use burning them with WMP either)

CD-rs do sound different to me. Most natural was MAM-e pro gold. Not so good anymore, according to multiple forums.Try Taiyo Yuden.

"Iv also heard that a CDr can sound better then the
original due to limitations in creating copys from the "master cd"?

Once copied a cd from dido to mam-e pro gold; the copy was indeed more detailed and open sounding. Never experienced it with any other cd-r though.

[/quote]

Thanks for your post. Im currently having problems with my Naim CD5x playing cds burnt with iTUnes and apple lossless. Iv heard that wave files are often better to burn from then apple lossless? Is this correct? Also, if I converted my apple to wave again, would the quality still be the same seeing as its "lossless"? I cant use any other program to burn either as nero and eac wont let me burn with the lossless format grr...

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Kiwi_Jonno"]Thanks for your post. Im currently having problems with my Naim CD5x playing cds burnt with iTUnes and apple lossless. Iv heard that wave files are often better to burn from then apple lossless? Is this correct?[/quote]

I would give WAVE files a try. I've never (yet) heard of a hifi cd player being capable of playing apple lossless files. To my best knowledge, only computer drives and ipods are capable of that. (If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me!)

"Also, if I converted my apple to wave again, would the quality still be the same seeing as its "lossless"?"

In theory there would be no quality loss.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for your reply. Iv just replaced my drive, and now have a Imation DVD Burner as my cd writer. Iv ditched iTunes for burning and have both EAC or Nero 6 to burn. Will 1x or 3x speed always be better then faster speeds? My drive can go up to 16x I think for CD-R. With iTunes it can do 1x speed, with EAC its the same, although when I click on 1x speed I think it displays 8x speed when its actually burning? Also, with Nero with my last burner the lowest It would go is 8x speed anyway. With my new writer it doesnt even let me change speeds the option is greyed out so I cannot select it. So is EAC pretty decent for a burner or is there a freeware program out there that is good?

And when you burn applelossless or mp3 to cd, it first converts the files to wave.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Kiwi_Jonno"]And when you burn applelossless or mp3 to cd, it first converts the files to wave.[/quote]

Ah, I see!

I guess it shows I almost never use itunes for burning cds.

If you're still having problems, try a different make of cd-r (taiyo yuden), maybe MAM-A (from America) specially designed to burn at low speeds, i.e. for music reproduction.

Also, does you cd/dvd-drive come with a quality control program? You might want to check the faulty cds first (before buying another make of cdrs)

I've searched the web and found msomeone who also uses naim gear at home and prefers taiyo yuden cdrs:
http://home.comcast.net/~analog414/RicksRecordings.html
However, my best guess is your computer is to blame. Take your time to set up your drive with EAC. See EAC option and drive settings. I know it looks complicated but there are some excellent user guidelines on the web.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm also interested in ripping my music CD's, I plan to rip them to uncompressed WAV file format. I notice some people mentioned EAC for burning, but what about ripping. Are there other, better, audio grabbers available, and what are the advantages these specialist rippers have over ones found in commercial media suites?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="kieran123"]I notice some people mentioned EAC for burning, but what about ripping. [/quote]

For ripping an audio cd EAC is certainly the best- it has an error recovery option that, if necessary, rereads a scratched part of the cd up to 100 times. Go to EAC options-> Extraction_-> set error recovery quality to "high".

I have a plextor cd-burner with nero software supplied, but still think EAC is better.