Lossless ripping & capacity usage - OUCH!

[The_Lhc]

wtaylorbasil: Does your FLAC files have all the Tag ifo? I converted one track fro deep Purple's Machine Head CD using MediaMonkey and (1) it does not pick-up any track info

Should pick up everything, assuming you were connected to the internet at the time, the fact that both Media Monkey and dBpoweramp fail suggests there's some other issue here. Is it an original CD? I've only ever known magazine cover discs not to be recognised in the past.

(2) properties show it was compressed to 32% (setting was on 0) but quality shows Perfect (lossless). It is same using dBpoweramp. Is this inorder?

Yes that's fine, generally I find my flac files end up about half the size of the original CD but it'll vary depending on the complexity of the music.

 

[wtaylorbasil]

the_lhc:

wtaylorbasil: Does your FLAC files have all the Tag ifo? I converted one track fro deep Purple's Machine Head CD using MediaMonkey and (1) it does not pick-up any track info

Should pick up everything, assuming you were connected to the internet at the time, the fact that both Media Monkey and dBpoweramp fail suggests there's some other issue here. Is it an original CD? I've only ever known magazine cover discs not to be recognised in the past.

(2) properties show it was compressed to 32% (setting was on 0) but quality shows Perfect (lossless). It is same using dBpoweramp. Is this inorder?

Yes that's fine, generally I find my flac files end up about half the size of the original CD but it'll vary depending on the complexity of the music.

Thank you all for your patience. To this point I have concluded from all the help to;(1) Have one Seagate BlackArmor SW 110 1TB external HD (2) PC with 1TB HD- not decided whether internal or external decent DAC to playback via receiver-24bit/192Khz capable (3) Accept SACD/DVD-A can not be duplicated so leave them alone (4) Rip CDs and vinyls to FLAC lossless (5) Use dBpoweramp, MediaMonkey or preferably Media Jukebox to rip. (6) Continue to use Dennon 1920 to play back all multi-channel audio/video. Question; (1) I do have a few HDCD and will probably buy some more- some are 24bit/96Khz and some 24bit/192Khz and most producers will opt for 24/192 in future. Can these be ripped and maintain purity for playback? This amount of bite-size is enough for now for me.

Any other comments/suggestions are most welcome especially playback of the ripped files & to make it easier for the other family members-wi-fi possibly??

 

[Anonymous]

Use DBPowerAmp as suggested and rip to flac.

Flac is now a universal lossless format. Ideal for media streaming throughout a home network. You can select whatever songs you want for the day and load a version (lossy for space saving ) on a portable media player. Ideally use flac (about half size of wav file) but mp3 if you want really small files, at the cost of sound quality. The original hi quality rip will stay on your HDD.

I would dump itunes and get a better solution that does not tie you in to their formats and ways of doing things.

If you want to keep the quality of sound of your vinyl, record it @ 24bit/96Khz minimum ( 32/192) if possible. Audacity (free!) can do all the recording (and saving at a lower resolution to save space) and de-clicking, but it's best to have a very good source LP to start with. You will need the best soundcard you can afford at least 24/96 stereo, such as M-Audio Delta 44.

Once recorded and saved, to at least 24/96 for Vinyl, you could then write to DVD-Audio (or DTS-MasterHD or whatever it's called ) to have your albums on DVD's. You will need a dedicated DVD-A player if you write to DVD-Audio discs. However it is possible to play DVD-A via your PC and stream from a media server.

It is possible to rip your DVD-A's and I suggest you rip them direct to iso which is another very good universally accepted format.

DBPowerAmp has a codec you can add for HDCD and I suggest buying the 'Reference' edition of DBPoweramp as it gives you many tools you'll find you need once you get into this ripping game.

 

[wtaylorbasil]

real.africa:

Use DBPowerAmp as suggested and rip to flac.

[[I have downloaded the dBPoweramp cd ripper and ripped 1 cd. It did not pickup Album, Genre & Date like MediaMomkey does. Also it does not give the option of sampling rate nor the bit rate-MM does not either. Will the Reference level dBP give tkose options?]]

Flac is now a universal lossless format. Ideal for media streaming throughout a home network. You can select whatever songs you want for the day and load a version (lossy for space saving ) on a portable media player. Ideally use flac (about half size of wav file) but mp3 if you want really small files, at the cost of sound quality. The original hi quality rip will stay on your HDD.

I would dump itunes and get a better solution that does not tie you in to their formats and ways of doing things.

If you want to keep the quality of sound of your vinyl, record it @ 24bit/96Khz minimum ( 32/192) if possible. Audacity (free!) can do all the recording (and saving at a lower resolution to save space) and de-clicking, but it's best to have a very good source LP to start with. You will need the best soundcard you can afford at least 24/96 stereo, such as M-Audio Delta 44.

Once recorded and saved, to at least 24/96 for Vinyl, you could then write to DVD-Audio (or DTS-MasterHD or whatever it's called ) to have your albums on DVD's. You will need a dedicated DVD-A player if you write to DVD-Audio discs. However it is possible to play DVD-A via your PC and stream from a media server.

It is possible to rip your DVD-A's and I suggest you rip them direct to iso which is another very good universally accepted format.

DBPowerAmp has a codec you can add for HDCD and I suggest buying the 'Reference' edition of DBPoweramp as it gives you many tools you'll find you need once you get into this ripping game.

 

[wtaylorbasil]

At last I am about to ripp my cds to an external drive. I am trying dBpoweramp, Mediamonkey and Media Jukebox.

I will ripp all to FLAC. However I am not able find how to set the sample rate and bit rate. I would like to ripp all the tracks to 20/96.

For portable listening I would re-convert to MP3 at 128.

Can someone help how to srt the bitrate and sample rate on FLAC?

regards

William

 

[Andrew Everard]

wtaylorbasil:At last I am about to ripp my cds to an external drive. I am trying dBpoweramp, Mediamonkey and Media Jukebox.

I will ripp all to FLAC. However I am not able find how to set the sample rate and bit rate. I would like to ripp all the tracks to 20/96.

No point ripping CDs as 20/96, as the original is only 16/44.1.

 

[wtaylorbasil]

It has taken me 6 months to finalise my AV system setup the way I want it.
I intend to rip and store all CDs to an External HD.
1.I am disappointed to find that the play back of the ripped FLAC (44.1/16), via USB into Receiver, is not as good as the original CD.
2. My equipment: LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4020B ripping drive, Cambridge Audio 650BD DVD/CD player, Onkyo TXNR609 Receiver (with USB input having 192/24 DACs but only plays up to 96/24 FLAC files), IMF TLS80 Mk II Transmission Line front speakers, Yamaha surround speakers and sub-woofer.
Q1:Which is the weak link in the rip/playback chain? (a) Ripper drive, (b) EHD/USB output to Receiver or (c) receiver? I would personally discount (c). But I do not have enough knowledge to say which of the other two links. But I have more info of the rip which may point to the right resolution. The track ripped by EAC gives a confidence 2 and ripped by dBpoweramp gives an accuracy of 2. Does this show I may need something like Plextor 230A or similar for ripping to a high accuracy? Or is there another reason? I need to eliminate the cause before I rip all my CDs.
The track used as a test is U2, The Joshua Tree, Where the streets have no name.
Any help will be most appreciated.
Regards
William

 

[ID.]

... ripped FLAC (44.1/16), via USB into Receiver, is not as good as the original CD....Cambridge Audio 650BD DVD/CD player

In which case I'd say

(c) receiver

Seeing as it doesn't sound as good as CD from the CD player I'm guessing the DAC in your receiver isn't as good as the DAC in your CD player.