iTunes - First Impressions

Just perfectly ripped my first CDS copy protected CD with iTunes

However, I don't think it's iTunes that's doing it, it's my NEC DVD-RW drive which reads audio CDs like a CD player does and does all the same error correction.

EAC rips the same CD just fine aswell but with my old Sony CD-RW drive it was taking so long (20 minutes for the first 30 seconds of track 1) I gave up.

Michael.

 

I've been using a Sony CXR225 CD-RW drive for my ripping (I don't wan to put wear and tear on my NEC DVD-RW). Average speed seems to be around 8.5X.

Copy-protected CDs successfuly I've successfully ripped are:

+ Phil Collins - Testify
+ Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells 2003
+ Dido - Life for Rent

 

Wear and tear on your NEC DVD-RW? Come on! Do you polish the tray door each morning aswell?

I've got an NEC DVD-ROM drive and an NEC DVD-RW and both of them seem to work fine for ripping. The DVD-RW drive seems to be a little quicker but the max rip speed I get (I'm doing 320kbps MP3) is about 6.5x. My HD is a brand new 80Gb Maxtor 7200rpm Ultra DMA drive so that shouldn't be the problem. Probably that my PC is a rusty old 933Mhz PIII

Michael.

 

iTunes is better than EAC for ripping is it? Does it allow you to rip to WAV files, so I can use my own compression codec instead?

 

You can on the mac, no reason why not on the PC.

 

I wouldn't say that iTunes or EAC was better than the other for ripping. The differences I've noticed were more due to the drive used than the ripping software. iTunes is remarkably good though and has an easier interface (ultimately less configurable though I suppose).

Yes, you can rip .WAV files with iTunes.

Michael.

 

Ahhh Michael, so you took my advice .

Any noticeable improvements over a lower rate ?

 

I did indeed Steve I realised I'd still be able to get easily more than 100 CDs onto it at 320 which is more than enough so what the hell.

TBH though I can't say I've noticed an improvement over 192Kbps. If there's an audible difference it's subtle at best (or I'm just deaf).

Michael.

 

Michael, what 'phones are you using ?

 

A well done 192 can be surprisingly competitive. Out of interest, what MP3 codec does iTunes use? Lame? FHG? or something else?

 

Steve, I'm using Sony EX70s (the earbud ones). Have been considering an upgrade to Etymotics (ER6) but I don't know if I can justify the $130 price ....not to mention the Etymotic ER4s which cost over $300 :yikes:

Paul - don't know what MP3 codec iTunes uses. It's all on big 8Mb executable file so no DLL giveaways as to what it's using. Might well be a proprietary Apple one.

Michael.

 

80 mins is the longest, AFAIK.

 

Nah, just that I've got over 500 CDs to rip and I'd rather kill a £40 drive, as opposed to a £90 one