Tír Na HiFi

As I've admitted in another thread, many of my files were ripped to flac, on a less than optimal setup
So now I'm thinking about re-ripping at least part of my cd collection.

I've seen some posts at the jplay forum where people think ripping is better in core mode, although I've seen at least one dissenting opinion. I won't name names, I'll let people chime in with their opinions as they see fit.

So I want to rip my CD's to wav.

I'll use my audio PC.
It can run windows 7 or Server 2012 R2.
I have AO and Project Lasso software.
I'll use dbpoweramp as the ripping software.

My cd drive will be powered from the same 5V as my PC, which is by two LIFEPO4 batteries that are constantly charged with a 5V linear supply. For 12V, I have a Astron Linear PS that will provide this. This is separate from the 12V to my PC.

Looking for suggestions for the best way to rip.

I'll probably do some experimentation, but would like to try to limit how many I'll do before I go ahead and rip.
I don't want to spend the rest of the year figuring out the best way to rip ;)


Randy

adams probably the most experienced
rest of us is too lazy:)
id imagine antivibe and efi is an issue on spinning drives

quality of bean tin dvd drives have worsened over the years well what you expect for 15-20 bucks

What is needed is the minimum amount of services running which would be easier with your music computer. An easy start would be the British company (JLing can refresh my memory) that offers an "optimization script" which turns off lots of stuff and is easy to use.

My first thought is: could XP be better for ripping? It could be. Sure can be made small and that has to make it less obtrusive.

AS Nigel mentions, the sturdiness of these drives is minimal. One wonders if a wooden enclosure might absorb some of the vibrations from the spinning CD. Easy enough to mount it outside the "tower". Powering is a bit difficult since you have 5 and 12 volts rails. Whether a battery would be better than just good regulators ...

One would think this should make a difference.

Now with the playback aspect settled (in my case) I think you have the right idea to pursue this.

What would be better - the standard SATA connection drive or USB drive through a PCIe USB card? I never understood why we used PCIe USB cards but I could hear the difference it made but whether that was due to the connection through PCIe or the better clock on the card, etc.

One thing to look at is NTLite to minimize your WINDOWS install. I found this made a difference with playback when I was using JPlay.

One would think anything that affects playback would have a similar effect on ripping though I go back to the fellow carcass93 who reported he could not hear any effects from his efforts. I cannot remember what he tried but he was very interested in computer audio and tweaks in general. See if the posts can be found at AA.

I look forward to hearing what you find and will try to offer something useful, too.

Might have a good use for your RAM disk - just read from Tony Lauck - that one should rip to the ram disk - let it sit there long enough to get refreshed a few times - and then
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well, this is what he wrote:
Note: you had best reformat all the drives involved prior to this experiment. And no solid state drives, or spinning rust drives that have any revectored sectors, either. The SSDs are hopeless, because of the revectoring that goes on under the name of "wear leveling". If you were to copy the files into a RAM disk that would be best. Make sure that each file resides on the RAM disk for a minute or two, so that it will be refreshed many times before you listen. You can color me paranoid if you like, but I retain the memory of a high school physics experiment that was supposed to measure acceleration of gravity that ended up measuring the power line frequency.
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From carcass93:
I wish I had better, "scientifically-agreeable" news for myself and others....
Posted by carcass93 (A) on December 22, 2014 at 13:44:11
... but I do not. Yeah, talking about "linear rips" again.

Didn't have much time over the weekend, so only managed to solder a wire with round connector to linear PC, rip some 5 tracks in various options, and conduct sighted listening.

All files are exactly the same byte-for-byte, as confirmed by running binary comparison "fc /b".

Based on what I heard, I'm definitely going to perform the next step - blind listening, with randomized file names, enlisting wife's help for renaming.

Will have to rip some more combinations, since I have an idea what else could potentially influence the outcome, besides what was discussed before.

Now good news: I did NOT hear a difference between rips done - all else being equal - with 2 different rippers (EAC and MusicBee), despite the fact that in this case, files were DIFFERENT.
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I've never heard of MUDIC BEE.

Not sure this added much to the discussion ...

So after you rip to the RAM disk is it then OK to place the file on an SSD or HDD? Sure hope so.

rickmcinnis wrote:What is needed is the minimum amount of services running which would be easier with your music computer. An easy start would be the British company (JLing can refresh my memory) that offers an "optimization script" which turns off lots of stuff and is easy to use.

CAD

My first thought is: could XP be better for ripping? It could be. Sure can be made small and that has to make it less obtrusive.

wonder if theres a minimal linux distro that can do this

AS Nigel mentions, the sturdiness of these drives is minimal. One wonders if a wooden enclosure might absorb some of the vibrations from the spinning CD. Easy enough to mount it outside the "tower". Powering is a bit difficult since you have 5 and 12 volts rails. Whether a battery would be better than just good regulators ...

One would think this should make a difference.

drives vary some are 12v and some are 12v and 5v

Now with the playback aspect settled (in my case) I think you have the right idea to pursue this.

What would be better - the standard SATA connection drive or USB drive through a PCIe USB card? I never understood why we used PCIe USB cards but I could hear the difference it made but whether that was due to the connection through PCIe or the better clock on the card, etc.

good idea a clocked external sata pcie card separately powered sounds interesting

One thing to look at is NTLite to minimize your WINDOWS install. I found this made a difference with playback when I was using JPlay.

One would think anything that affects playback would have a similar effect on ripping though I go back to the fellow carcass93 who reported he could not hear any effects from his efforts. I cannot remember what he tried but he was very interested in computer audio and tweaks in general. See if the posts can be found at AA.

id guess that 100 individuals tested only 20% would report differences

randytsuch wrote: So I want to rip my CD's to wav.
I'll use my audio PC.
It can run windows 7 or Server 2012 R2.
I have AO and Project Lasso software.
I'll use dbpoweramp as the ripping software.

My cd drive will be powered from the same 5V as my PC, which is by two LIFEPO4 batteries that are constantly charged with a 5V linear supply. For 12V, I have a Astron Linear PS that will provide this. This is separate from the 12V to my PC.

Not much to ad, except maybe a good sata cable, good footers under the CDRW and a lot of weight on top (lot of brass).
AO in core and PL set for dbpower.
I noticed when AO in core you can't change the destination folder in db, so make sure that you do that before you change to core. It will remain the same.
Like I mentioned before, I completely disabled all internet processes and typed the file names.
I used the lowest drive speed (or recommended speed for your drive).

I never compared R2 and W7. I don't see why would W7 be better, but can't comment?!
I compared old, heavy build CDP Plextor with Locus Axis USB cable against the Asus DRW-24D3ST (what PPA recommends ...some special chip inside, but build like shit) with PPA sata cable. Asus was better for a margin.
I compared simultaneously ripping in two SSD drives at once, so I can have a backup and avoid another loss in copying, but sounded better when ripping ONLY in one SSD at the time.

Use all the CD treatments that you can get and what make audible difference when play.

I can't comment on what someone else heard on not heard, this is what I tried.
The differences are not like day and night, but there are a lot of them and they are cumulative!

Enjoy,
Adam

Rick/Nige
I think the point of using server 2012 in AO core mode is that AO turns off as many windows processes as possible to make Server act like a stripped down windows.

So, since I'm lazy by nature, I'll probably just use this as my OS.

I forget what kind of drive I have right now, I bought it at my local frys.
Its an internal drive, but not mounted. So, I can put it on isolators, and put some weight on top.
The Asus DRW-24D3ST drive looks like its hard to find. I can get a Asus DRW-24B3ST, but I don't know what the difference is. I'll probably try the 24B3ST, and hope for the best.

And CD Treatments. Well, that's something I haven't tried for a long time. I remember I used to black out the inside of the CD with a sharpie. I'll need to look into that one some.

And I'll give a try to using a PCIE to USB and then USB to SATA adapter. But then I also need to worry about the USB to SATA adapter, I have some cheap generic one.

Randy

Wooow, I had no idea that I can use the usb card like an input!!!
Is that what are you guys saying?!!

When I used Plextor, I conected just in one of the 3.0 ports on the back.

Actually I remeber now that I tried that way, but than I realized that I also need the 5v from usb cable, witch I dont have and I give up!!!

sima66 wrote:
Actually I remeber now that I tried that way, but than I realized that I also need the 5v from usb cable, witch I dont have and I give up!!!

Your USB to data adapter was faulty

Think I saw one of these at pearses
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00FVXM ... ref=plSrch
And one of these for DVD drive
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00UVJI ... ref=plSrch

Both on clean power think rick knows of an off the shelf injector
Clock upgrades may be applicable

Also seen this on my search
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00MOHH ... ref=plSrch
Wonder if those damn cf cards would work with it

To inject 5V into a USB cable
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p= ... sb-(5vusb)

To inject clean power into a PCIE card (courtesy of Rick)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/card.asp? ... 0PRO%20Kit